Family and coworkers of the 12 female North Korean restaurant workers involved in April’s mass-defection to South Korea held an interview last week with a Pyongyang representative of the Los Angeles-based Minjok Tongshin.

But while the video was said to be filmed on August 21 – four days after Seoul announced the release of the former workers from – the interviewees seemed to believe their daughters were still being “detained” in South Korean government facilities.