Pak Jong-suk told audience in Pyongyang she was tricked into defecting and spoke of her 'miserable' life in South Korea

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

North Korea is claiming a propaganda victory after a woman who claimed she had been tricked into defecting to South Korea returned home after growing disillusioned with her "miserable" life in the capitalist south.

Speaking at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Thursday, Pak Jong-suk apologised for defecting in 2006, apparently so that she could be reunited with her father in the Chinese city of Qingdao.

"I am an ingrate who had betrayed my motherland to seek better living while others devoted themselves to building a thriving nation, tightening their belts," Pak, wearing a pink traditional dress, told reporters in Pyongyang.

The 66-year-old claimed that South Korean intelligence agents had later tricked her into boarding a boat to their country.

South Korea's unification ministry said Pak had lived in eastern Seoul under the name Park In-sook, but would not provide further details. Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector, said he and Pak had lived in the same apartment complex in Seoul. He said she had been an "ordinary woman" who had never discussed politics with him.

Media reports said Pak had flown back to North Korea, via China, on 25 May this year.

It was not clear if Pak had volunteered to speak publicly or under pressure from the North Korean authorities. Her public appearance may have been designed to counter claims that returning defectors, most of whom are forcibly repatriated from China, face harsh punishments.

Earlier this week, South Korean media reported that four defectors repatriated to North Korea by China had been publicly executed.

In her comments, some of which were later broadcast on state television, Pak repeatedly thanked North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un.

"When I deplaned [in Pyongyang], quieting my thumping heart, I was stunned by the cordial reception," she said in a translation provided by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. "I felt at that time how affectionate and great the motherland is to me.

"The dear respected Kim Jong-un did not blame me, who did so many wrongs in the past, but brought me under his warm care. He showed profound loving care for me."

Pak said she had crossed the Tumen river into China in March 2006, hoping to meet her father, who had stayed in the south after the peninsula was divided by the demilitarised zone at the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. Her father, who was unconscious following brain surgery, was unable to speak to her before he died two months after her arrival.

The details of Pak's recent defection are hazy. She said she had decided to return after becoming disillusioned with life in South Korea, where, she claimed, defectors are paid to slander North Korea. She now lives in Pyongyang with her son, a teacher, and his wife.

Defections from South Korea to North Korea are extremely rare. Park Soo-jin, a spokesman for the unification ministry, said the only other known case involved a defector known as Yoo, who entered South Korea in 1998 and returned to Pyongyang in 2000, before defecting for the second time a year later.

While most defectors say they are happy in South Korea, they face discrimination, lower salaries and higher rates of unemployment.

At around 12%, unemployment among North Korean defectors is far higher than the 3.4% rate among South Koreans.

Those in work earn significantly less than their southern counterparts, despite government subsidies and three months of mandatory resettlement training, according to the government-affiliated North Korean Refugees Foundation.

But a recent unification ministry survey showed that seven out of 10 adult defectors said they were satisfied with life in the south; only 4.8% said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

About half of those questioned left North Korea due to food shortages, while 31% said they came south in search of freedom. Just over a quarter fled because of North Korea's political system.

More than 23,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean war ended in a truce almost 60 years ago. Last year, 2,737 people – one of the highest figures on record - defected to the south.