Prosecutors in Seoul on Wednesday indicted a two-time North Korean defector who holds South Korean citizenship on charges of breaking a national security law by illegally visiting Pyongyang, South Korean media reported.
Kim Kwang-ho, 37, had originally defected from North Korea in August 2009 with his wife-to-be Kim Ok-sil and arrived in South Korea that November, said South Korea’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
The two obtained South Korean citizenship and had a daughter in South Korea. A few years after Kim settled in the South, he was sued because he was unable to pay one million won (HK$7,151) to a broker who helped him defect from North Korea, prosecutors in Seoul said.
Kim did not receive the document requesting him to appear at court and lost the lawsuit, which led to a provisional seizure of his public rental housing deposit of 13 million won (HK$92,971), prosecutors explained.
As life in South Korea became difficult, Kim decided to return to North Korea with his family and was able to go back in November 2012 with the help of the North Korean consulate in the Chinese city of Shenyang, South Korean media reported.
In January this year, Kim appeared in a press conference aired by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, calling South Korea “a dangerous world where fraud, trickery and machinations prevail”.