North Korea demands Seoul return waitresses who ‘defected’ from China after threat to scrap Donald Trump summit
Pyongyang claims the women were kidnapped from a North Korean state-run restaurant in China while Seoul insists they defected of their own free will
North Korea has demanded Seoul repatriate a dozen waitresses who fled to the South two years ago, just days after abruptly calling off a planned inter-Korean meeting following weeks of tentative rapprochement.
The fate of the women could jeopardise relations between the two countries, said a statement from the North’s Red Cross carried by the official KCNA news agency late Saturday.
“The South Korean authorities should … send our women citizens to their families without delay and thus show the will to improve North-South ties,” the statement said.
At a landmark summit last month in the demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the South’s President Moon Jae-in pledged to pursue denuclearisation and a peace treaty.
A rapid thaw in tensions earlier this year saw Pyongyang release three US detainees and invite foreign media to witness the closing of its nuclear test site ahead of a planned summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in Singapore next month.
But Pyongyang “indefinitely” postponed a high-level meeting with the South last week in protest of joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington and also has threatened to cancel the Singapore summit.
In a phone conversation on Sunday, Trump and Moon “exchanged views on various actions taken by North Korea recently”, Moon’s office said in a statement.
The two leaders agreed to “work closely” for the success of the landmark summit in Singapore.
North Korea’s sudden shift in attitude followed a weeks-long charm offensive that has seen Kim hold a historic summit with Moon and meet twice with Chinese President Xi Jinping.