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A woman in South Korea, having come from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) four years ago, has wanted back since she got here to her "fatherland." That has been banned by the South Korean government, which doesn't send "defectors" back under the current law.
Kim Ryen-hi, 45, held a press conference in front of the building housing the UN human rights office in Seoul on Wednesday with the help of five pastors from the Christian Pastors for Peace Action to Practice Love and Justice.
Kim said "As a DPRK citizen, I came to South Korea four years ago after being cheated by a broker committing a human trafficking. I made clear when I arrived in Seoul that it was a mistake and strongly demanded I be allowed to return back to my hometown, but (South Korea) made me one of DPRK defectors."
The South Korean government "even branded me as'a person of unusual identity'on the grounds that I can flee to the North anytime later and has refused over the past four years to issue a passport to me," she said.
A tearful Kim, having a daughter, a doctor husband and parents, all of whom are living in the DPRK, wailed "It is a natural thing as a human to wish living together with my family, and preventing this would be anti-human, anti-democratic and against humanity."
The DPRK woman traveled to China in 2011 for treatment of her liver cirrhosis. She was cheated by a broker there who said that she could return to China after earning a lot of money in South Korea within a couple of months.
In order to pay her medical bills, Kim came to Seoul but regretted her decision a short time later." I applied for my passport to municipal offices twice, but they said the National Intelligence Service (NIS) blocked the issuance," Kim said in an interview with Xinhua.
She made a call to the NIS, which replied that she had been classified as "a person of unusual identity." Kim said. "To me, South Korea is like an island country, in which I'm locked up and not allowed to go anywhere."
After being denied a passport, Kim said she tried to stow away in early 2013. But it ended up in failure as she should have paid 20 million won (17,000 U.S. dollars), which was unaffordable to her.
She tried forging a passport through a broker who she got to know on the Internet, but the broker threatened to report her to police while raising the price of fake passport from 2.5 million won to 5 million won. The frustrated Kim reported herself to the police.
In despair, Kim tried to kill herself several times. In April 2014, she swallowed some 50 tablets of sleeping pill, but police officers keeping a watch on her found it. Before long, she slashed her right wrist, the stitches of which she showed off to the reporter while being interviewed.
Then she came up with an "absurd" plan, which also ended up failure, to be deported from South Korea by doing spying activity. She came to the gathering of DPRK defectors to collect their names, addresses and mobile phone numbers, which were recorded on her own cellphone.
Kim even reported herself to police, offering her cellphone as evidence. She hasn't been deported. Instead, she was arrested and charged with espionage in July 2014.
She was released in April 2015 after nine months of imprisonment as an appeals court set her free with two years of imprisonment suspended for three years. She is now under surveillance, with the parole continuing until 2018.
While serving her nine-month prison term, she was chained and beaten for about two months as she tried to kill herself inside her one-room cell, Kim said, adding she met pastors there. "I felt so bad. I didn't want to live at that time,"she said.
After finishing the press conference in front of the building housing the UN human rights office in Seoul, Kim and the five pastors tried to enter the building into the UN office to file her petition, but police officers blocked their entrance. Tussles and yelling happened between them.
A gray van from police repeatedly said via a loudspeaker that they were "obstructing businesses" of the UN office, which held an opening ceremony in June but hasn't been in normal operations yet. The loudspeaker blared"The UN human rights office is not in operation now. The filing should be made via mail." "I cannot understand why the police block us from approaching to the front of the UN office that isn't open yet? It's like a political show. It reflects the reality of our human rights here in South Korea," Rev. Choi Jae Bong, one of the five pastors, said in an interview.
The pastor said there must have been a problem with human rights in South Korea, which does not allow a DPRK woman to come back to her family. He said that a couple of civil societies were planning to form a committee to help Kim return to the DPRK. " The most important is what Kim Ryen-hi wants. She wants to go back to her fatherland. She says her fatherland is the DPRK. It is a matter of human being and demand from a human,"said Rev. Moon Dae Gor.
Moon said that the DPRK's release of a South Korean student having studied in New York University on Monday was a signal from the DPRK that South Korea should send her back to her family in Pyongyang. Joo Won-moon, 21, was repatriated to Seoul after some six months of detention in the North.
Her story hasn't drawn much attention from South Korean media, and some of conservative South Korean elders disagreed with sending her back. "She will tell North Korean (DPRK) government about everything she heard and saw while in Seoul after coming back. I'm positively against repatriating her back," said a 74-year-old woman who was watching the press conference on the street. "I'm positively against her going back to North Korea. What will she do when she comes back? The pastors must be pro-North Korean activists," said 68-year-old Noh Jong-man.
Baek Gwang-mo, one of the five pastors, said "Why do you think pastors took to the street? If we, pastors, didn't come out, others must have been branded as pro-North Korean activists."
