A North Korean defector has claimed she was forced to provide information on the movements of a pastor living in China who was helping defectors shortly before he was murdered by agents of Pyongyang's Ministry of State Security.

Han Chung-ryeol, a pastor at a church in China's Changbai City, helped to run a network that assisted people fleeing the border region before they could be caught and sent back to North Korea. He disappeared in April 2016 but was later found dead with a slashed throat.

The North was immediately suspected of being involved in Mr Han's death - a suspicion that has grown in recent months due to numerous reports of North Korean "abduction units" operating against dissidents and defectors who have managed to get over the border into China - although Chinese authorities said they were unable to find any evidence that Pyongyang had carried out the attack.