The Ministry of Unification does not reiterate any coercion in the defection of the workers of the restaurant NK

The South Korean Unification Ministry reaffirmed Monday its position that the 12 North Korean food service workers who came to the South in 2016 defected on their own.

The statement comes a day after the National Human Rights Commission announced its intention to launch an investigation into allegations that the 12 women were abducted by the National Intelligence Service of the South without knowing their destination.

"Our stance on the issue remains unchanged," Lee Eugene, deputy spokesman for the ministry, told reporters at a regular press briefing. "Our ministry is collaborating with the commission on human rights."

Twelve North Korean catering workers and their manager arrive at the Incheon International Airport on April 8, 2016. (Yonhap)

The Commission seeks to Defection Has it been conducted freely by the workers, was there an illegal intervention by the South Korean authorities and the opportunity for the Seoul government to publicize the defection of 2016 the day after his arrival?

The narrative surrounding the defection took a turn in May when the director, Huh Gang-he, arrived with the women, told local TV channel JTBC in May that he had been forced by the 39, spying agency in Seoul to cooperate with bring them to the south. Huh added in a follow-up interview that the NIS has threatened to blow up its coverage to North Korean authorities if it refused to cooperate, having worked as a NIS informant for a year. Huh and the women were employed in a restaurant run by Pyongyang in China at the time. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said on July 10 that there were "some flaws in the way they were brought to Korea from South ", and they had no knowledge of where they were heading at the time, after questioning some of the defectors in Seoul

However, opinions remain divided. Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the North Korea Human Rights Committee, told Radio Free Asia that the workers could have been lying to protect family members who remained in the country and could face heavy sentences. or even the death penalty. 1965/002] Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told legislators in the National Assembly last week that ministry officials interviewed two of the defectors, trying to avoid the contact with the government, probably to protect their families in the North. The prosecution has also begun investigating the allegations since June, after lawyers for a democratic society, or Minbyun, filed a lawsuit against former high officials suspected of orchestrating the defection.

In accordance with a new series of allegations, Pyongyang intensified its call for the repatriation of workers, saying that the South's refusal to fire the group could create obstacles to relations between the two divided Koreas.

By Jung Min-kyung ([email protected])