North Korea taking conciliatory approach to defectors

SEOUL, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Pyongyang aired footage of a young North Korean woman imploring her father to return after defecting to the South – an unusual move by the country that frequently condemns defectors as "liars" and "traitors."

The video of the 22-year-old woman identified as Ri Mi Hyang aired ahead of North Korea's observance of Parents' Day, South Korean news network Yonhap TV reported Monday.

In the video message to her father on North Korean propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri, Ri, a resident of Nampo, said that he shouldn't live in "hell-like conditions" in South Korea and asked him to return to the bosom of the Workers' Party to "live together."

North Korea has been showing signs that it is bringing incremental changes to its policy toward defectors – and has encouraged, and at times coerced resettled North Koreans in South Korea to return to their homeland.

Pyongyang, however, has expressed its displeasure toward defectors who have testified before the U.N. and human rights organizations on the abuses they endured in the North. North Korea has slammed these individuals as state "traitors" while at the same time pursuing a policy of conciliation toward defectors in the South.

Yonhap reported that at least 16 defectors have returned to the North between 2000 and 2014. Some have publicly testified in Pyongyang that they struggled with life in the South – statements that correspond to what some defectors in the South say about their living conditions.

A recent survey showed that more defectors said they were better off in North Korea – while 12.7 percent and 36.6 percent of defectors identified themselves as upper and middle class, respectively, in the North, the same group showed 3.3 percent and 23.1 percent identified themselves as upper and middle class in the South.

North Koreans in the South are given money and heavily subsidized housing upon resettlement, but the measure has not been successful, according to Song Du-rok, a visiting professor at Korea National Sport University.

South Korean outlet Newsis reported Song said the "welfare approach" to North Korean defectors should be abandoned – at a time when the defector population in the South Korea is reaching nearly 30,000. Cooperative governance, improvements in the resettlement system and strengthening counseling services at unification nonprofits are needed instead, Song said.