SEOUL, South Korea - Six South Koreans repatriated from North Korea over the weekend said they had fled to the North through China in recent years to escape bankruptcies and family troubles in the South and in search of a better life, the South Korean news media and government officials said Monday.
North Korea handed over the six men, aged 27 to 67, at the border Friday. It was an unusual gesture from the North, which had in the past welcomed defectors from the South and used them for propaganda.
After returning home, all six men told investigators that they had entered the North through its border with China between 2009 and 2012, said a South Korean government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He also said that the remains of a woman returned Friday from the North were of the wife of one of the six men.
The South Korean news media quoted anonymous government sources as saying that one of the six had posted pro-North Korean messages on the Internet while in the South. He then decided to defect to the North, hoping that he would be treated well there.
Another man hoped for treatment for kidney stones in the North, the Yonhap news agency and other South Korean news media said. But all six ended up going through between 14 and 45 months of interrogations by the North Korean authorities and living in virtual house arrest in guesthouses, the reports said.
The 65-year-old husband of the dead woman told investigators that he strangled her and tried but failed to kill himself in what he described as an aborted suicide pact, they said.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 10/29/2013