Seoul: South Korea is investigating the case of a North Korean defector who became a celebrity refugee in Seoul, but recently appeared on Pyongyang television to claim she had returned home from the “hell” of the capitalist South.
Lim Ji-Hyun, a female defector in her 20s, arrived in Seoul in 2014 and soon became a public figure after starring in several South Korean TV shows featuring escapees from the North.
But on Sunday Lim abruptly appeared in a video on the North’s propaganda network, describing how her “fantasy” about the wealthy South had been shattered.
In the video, posted on the North’s Uriminzokkiri website, Lim says she had “returned home” last month and was now living with her family in the western city of Anju.
It is unclear whether Lim returned voluntarily, with South Korean media speculating that she might have been kidnapped at the Chinese border with the North while trying to reunite with her family.
Seoul police sources who probed Lim’s home and financial accounts in Seoul told the South’s JoongAng Ilbo daily there was little sign of her trying to wrap up her life in the country and move elsewhere.
“Relevant authorities are investigating the North Korean defector Lim Ji-Hyun,” said Lee Yoo-Jin, deputy spokeswoman of Seoul’s unification ministry handling North Korea affairs. Seoul’s spy agency declined to comment.
In the video, Lim identified herself as Chon Hae-Song, which she said was her real name in the North.
Wearing a traditional silk hanbok and red badge bearing the images of the North’s two former leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, Lim tearfully detailed her “miserable” life in the capitalist neighbour where “money is all that matters.”
— AFP
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