Seoul: South Korea on Friday demanded Pyongyang swiftly release a North Korean defector it had arrested on charges of attempting to abduct children in the isolated state.

In a carefully stage-managed press conference in Pyongyang, Ko Hyon-Chol, 53, who originally fled North Korea in 2013, ‘confessed’ to attempting to kidnap two girl orphans and take them to the South.

Seoul’s unification ministry expressed ‘deep regret’ over the North for ‘illegally arresting’ its citizens and using them for a ‘war of propaganda’.

‘The government strongly demands North Korea release our citizens including Ko Hyon-Chol and immediately repatriate them,’ the ministry said in a statement.

Ko was automatically granted South Korean citizenship after settling in the South.

North Korea is currently holding at least four South Korean detainees who have been arrested since 2013, including Ko.