N. Korean defector surrenders herself to police

SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean defector who lived in China in hiding
for more than a decade recently smuggled into South Korea and has surrendered
herself to the authorities here, police said Wednesday.
The 31-year old woman, identified only by her surname Kim, voluntarily appeared
in the Gwangjin Police Station in eastern Seoul on Monday and is currently under
supervision by the National Intelligence Service, according to officers at the
station.
Kim had lived in China for over 10 years after defecting from the North in 1997
and reached the South on a cargo ship recently from Shenyang, China.
A total of 15,057 North Korean defectors have arrived in the South since the end
of the 1950-53 Korean War, a large number of which came starting in the late
1990s, according to the Ministry of Unification.
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