N.K. defector sent to prison camp after returning home

July 16 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean defector who returned to her communist homeland from South Korea appears to have been sent to a concentration camp in the North, a Seoul lawmaker claimed Tuesday. The defector, Ko Kyung-hee, was one of four North Koreans who Pyongyang claimed in January had returned home after enduring unbearable hardships in the South. Ko gave a press conference on North Korean TV at the time, saying that she had slipped back in through China because she missed her children in the North. "Ko tried to defect (again) through the (North Korean) border city of Hyesan on June 17, but failed and was arrested by North Korean authorities," Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the ruling Saenuri Party said in a news conference at the National Assembly. "It is presumed that she is now being held at a prison camp." Despite the North's claims, it is likely that the group of defectors gave the televised press conference in January under Pyongyang's orders to depict the South as a terrible place to live in, he added. The three other North Koreans who returned home with Ko also tried to defect again by crossing the border into China on June 27, the lawmaker said. Kim Kwang-ho, his wife and their 1-year-old daughter had started their journey home from South Korea in order to bring their relatives out of the communist country, and fled with the wife's brother and sister. "On their way here, however, Kim and his four family members were caught by Chinese authorities and have been detained in the outskirts of China," the lawmaker said. "If sent back to the North, their lives would not be guaranteed," Ha said, calling on the Seoul government to devise swift responses for their release and safe arrival here. Seoul's foreign ministry said it is taking "necessary measures," but didn't elaborate. "Our principle is that we provide support for North Koreans hoping to come here," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters. "(The South Korean government) can claim the right to protect its people," Cho said when asked if Seoul is entitled to demand China such a consular right for the defectors. Once arriving here from the communist country, defectors acquire South Korean citizenship, which means Kim, his wife and their baby would be South Korean nationals. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled their homeland in recent decades to escape political oppression and chronic poverty. Many of them travel through China, Thailand, Laos and other Southeast Asian countries before resettling in the South, now home to more than 25,000 North Korean defectors, according to government data.