Months after declaring his intent to return to the North, defector Son Jong-hun remains trapped in the South.

Son, 48, fled the North 11 years ago and has since worked in NGOs representing defectors, but said he wants to return to make a statement about inadequate treatment of defectors in the South, and to see the family he left behind.

Son said that the adequate treatment of defectors in South Korea was sacrificed during the administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, who sought conciliation with the North, and that these presidents’ more hard-line successors have not improved conditions.

NK