Friends and family of 12 female North Korean restaurant workers who recently arrived in Seoul used interviews with pro-Pyongyang media to call for their release and repatriation, two June 15 dated videos show.

The interviewees, filmed by the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo in Pyongyang, said what South Korea described as a rare “mass defection” was instead an “abduction” of North Korean citizens, urging Seoul to return the women as soon as possible.

“The South Korean government asserts that our friends left on their free will but that is clearly a lie,” said Choe Rae Young in Korean, presented as a friend of one of the restaurant workers who arrived in Seoul this