PYONGYANG, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday demanded the immediate repatriation of 12 girls, who it said were kidnapped one year ago by South Korea's intelligence service abroad.
The Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman for the Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society as saying in a statement that "mounting high is the wrath of the parents of the abductees and indignation of other Koreans after one year since they were taken to South Korea by the puppet gangsters," in reference to the South Korean authorities.
The spokesman accused Seoul of "clinging to a deceptive smear campaign" against the DPRK and "denying the opening of their whereabouts to the public and their repatriation to the last."
"No one knows who is alive, who died and who became disabled out of those 12 (girls) who are in custody by the puppet intelligence service gangsters (of South Korea)," said the spokesman.
A South Korean official recently claimed that the allegedly kidnapped girls have been admitted to college "for their smooth adaptation to (the) South Korean society."
The DPRK spokesman called the claim as "a childish deception and inhumane act aiming to pull the wool over the eyes of the public."
