‘Every single day in the South was like hell’: North Korean celebrity defector returns home
Lim Ji-hyun rose to prominence in South Korea as a result of her appearances on a cable network talk show known as Moranbong Club and a reality programme called South Korean Men and North Korean Women
South Korea is investigating the case of a North Korean defector who became a celebrity refugee in Seoul, but recently appeared on Pyongyang television to claim she had returned home from the “hell” of the capitalist South.
Lim Ji-hyun, a female defector in her 20s, arrived in Seoul in 2014 and soon became a public figure after starring in several South Korean television programmes featuring escapees from the North.
But on Sunday, Lim abruptly appeared in a video on the North’s propaganda network, describing how her “fantasy” about the wealthy South had been shattered.
In the video, posted on the North’s Uriminzokkiri website, Lim says she had “returned home” last month and was now living with her family in the western city of Anju.
It is unclear whether Lim returned voluntarily, with South Korean media speculating she might have been kidnapped at the Chinese border with the North while trying to reunite with her family.
Every single day in the South was like hell. Every night ... I cried thinking about my motherland and my parents in the North
Seoul police sources who probed Lim’s home and financial accounts in Seoul told the South’s JoongAng daily there was little sign of her trying to wrap up her life in the country and move elsewhere.