Seoul ‘tricked’ North Korean waitresses into defecting, manager admits
Manager of restaurant in Ningbo says he was recruited by South Korean intelligence and blackmailed women into leaving with him
The 12 North Korean waitresses who defected from China two years ago were tricked into doing so in an operation by the South’s intelligence services, their manager told South Korean television in a bombshell revelation.
The high-profile case has long been controversial, with Pyongyang insisting the women had been kidnapped and saying there would be no more reunions of families divided by the Korean war unless they were returned.
Seoul insisted that they had defected of their own free will.
But Heo Gang-il, the manager of the North Korean restaurant in Ningbo where they worked, said he had lied about their final destination and blackmailed them into following him to the South.
Heo told JTBC television he had been recruited by Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) in China in 2014.