Coercion claims by North Korean ‘defectors’

Several North Korean waitresses who arrived in South Korea in 2016 in a group of 13 defectors have said they were coerced into leaving, and a South Korean ministry that handles ties with the North said yesterday it was trying to verify their account.

South Korea said at the time that the 12 waitresses and their manager, from a restaurant in China, had defected out of admiration for South Korean society. North Korea denounced it as a “hideous” abduction of its workers and demanded them back.