The statement said:

The south Korean authorities are refusing to repatriate the abducted DPRK citizens and justifying their detention, asserting that Kim Ryon Hui and 12 women citizens of the DPRK who were abducted in group "defected from the north and settled in south Korea according to their free will" and that there is no reason to "repatriate them, according to a law in force."

This is just another politically-motivated provocation denying the social system of the DPRK.

If the south Korean authorities truly "respect personal intention" of the DPRK citizens, they should send them back to the DPRK without delay as wanted by them.

The unreasonable detention of the DPRK citizens is just an inhuman act of following in the footsteps of the Park Geun Hye group of traitors which had been hell-bent on hideous acts against the nation and humanity, and a human rights abuse going against the principle of the international human rights standard.

The south Korean authorities are talking about "reunion of separated families" from the north and the south while patronizing the unethical crimes of the former conservative regime which separated the children from their parents and families in broad daylight.

They should stop this impudent act but unconditionally repatriate the citizens.