As the final verdict approaches in the appeal trial on Yoo Woo-seong’s espionage case, tensions have ramped up in South Korea’s defector community.

Last week, 10 defector organizations in the South rallied outside Yoo’s house in Seoul to express dismay at what they consider unduly favorable treatment of a man many do not even see as a defector, the Daily NK reported.

As an ethnically Chinese North Korean – a so-called hwagyo– Yoo was a Chinese passport-holder at the time he requested asylum and citizenship in the South – a fact he didn’t inform immigration officials of