Don't call us, we'll call you

The following is a transcript of a phone conversation between Choi Uk-il and his wife, Yang Jeong-ja, and the South Korean consulate in Shenyang. It was not the first. The consulate's side of the conversation cannot be heard.

Choi Uk-il I am set to go back to my hometown in South Korea. I have escaped from North Korea and am here [in China] now, so ... where did I get your number from? How did we find it? We asked the consulate and that's how I found you.

Yang Jeong-ja Hello? Hello? I am Choi Uk-il's wife. Choi - Uk - Il. Hello? His wife ... I wanted to speak to you and so my husband passed me the phone ... we found out your number from the consulate and we wanted to report to you and that's why we are calling, because he has turned up.

Thirty years ago, we reported him missing and they told me he had died and so we registered him as dead. And then all of a sudden he reappears - yes, of course, a South Korean, really, a South Korean - and we thought we should telephone you to tell you he had escaped from the North.

[Begins sobbing]

His hometown is in South Korea. [sobs] My husband came all the way to meet me so I thought we should telephone. Please help my husband. He's too wretched. He can't eat. He's hasn't been well in North Korea. [sobs]