North Korea's Kim tries new tack with defectors - being nice

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking a new approach to defectors who have fled his impoverished and repressive state, promising they will not be harmed if they come home, and even offering cash rewards, according to some in the exile community.

For some who return from South Korea there's even the chance of a stage-managed performance on state 

replica Tommy Hilfiger

television, although what happens to them after their prime time appearances is not known in a state where 200,000 people are imprisoned in gulags and where punishment extends to three generations of a family.

One woman last year apologized at a televised press conference in Pyongyang for betraying her motherland and thanked Kim for bringing her under his "profound loving care" while another dubbed South Korea a "shitty world with no love".

That's in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Kim's father, who during nearly 20 years in power hid the issue and severely punished the families of those who defected, fearing they would undermine the state with their tales of the prosperous South.

North Korean security agents have been visiting families in the reclusive state for at least the past year, telling them it would be safe for their loved ones in the South to come back, several defectors in Seoul told Reuters.

Hugo Boss for sale

Some said they had even heard of people posing as defectors trying to tempt North Koreans in the South this year with a promise of 50 million South Korean won ($45,000) and an opportunity to appear on television in Pyongyang if they returned.

"My mother said 'if you have money, come back. General Kim Jong-un will treat you well'," said one defector in her 30s who lives in Seoul, recounting a recent telephone conversation with her mother who called her from a North Korean town on the border with China.