North Korea has accused South Korea of abducting the 12 women who were working in China and demanded their return. They said they didn’t know where they were headed to until they reached the South Korean Embassy in Malaysia and that they wish to see their parents again. “New claims have been made on how the North Korean workers escaped and arrived in South Korea and whether they were acting on their free will,” Baik said. The South later in 2016 rejected a highly unusual overture by the North to temporarily send the restaurant workers’ relatives to the South to meet with them. More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government.

Source: National Post May 11, 2018 03:22 UTC