SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's media on Friday ramped up their calls for South Korea to repatriate its restaurant workers who defected here years ago, saying that any delay in resolving the issue could negatively affect inter-Korean relations. 
 
 Twelve North Korean women had been working at a restaurant in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo and came to the South in April 2016. The group defection has been causing controversy amid claims that some of them were duped into coming to the South. 
 
 "If our female citizens' repatriation issue is not resolved as quickly as possible, it could serve as an obstacle not just to the planned reunions of separated families between the two Koreas but also to the overall inter-Korean relations," said Uriminzokkiri, the North's external propaganda website. 
 
 The website claimed that those workers were coerced into the South and sending them back would be a "touchstone" by which the Seoul government's commitment to carrying out the April inter-Korean summit agreement can be tested. 
 
 "We will closely watch what action the South Korean government will take," it said. 
 
 Meari, another North Korean propaganda website, also claimed that the North Korean workers were "kidnapped," saying that a failure in resolving the issue could hamper inter-Korean relations, including the planned family reunion event. 
 
 Controversy flared up over those workers in May when a local cable broadcaster aired an interview with a restaurant manager who said he tricked them into defecting and that South Korea's spy agency was involved in the process. 
 
 The Seoul government has claimed that the North Korean women defected to the South of their own will. The North has demanded their immediate return. 
 
 South and North Korea are currently preparing to hold reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast next month, an event in line with the agreement their leaders reached in a historic summit in April. 
 
 kokobj@yna.co.kr 
 
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 (ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more info throughout) 
 
 SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday repatriated a 21-year-old South Korean student who has been detained there since April, the Unification Ministry said, in what could be a conciliatory gesture by the North to South Korea. 
 
 The communist nation freed Joo Won-moon, a New York University student alleged to have attempted to illegally cross the border from China, through the truce village of Panmunjom, earlier in the day, according to a ministry official. 
 
 "It's a relief that North Korea has decided to repatriate our national, Joo," the official noted, adding that the North should also send home three other South Koreans still held in the country - missionary Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil. 
 
 The North's abrupt move is seen as a conciliatory sign at a time when the country has ratcheted up missile and nuclear threats ahead of a major anniversary. 
 
 Dampening the hard-won conciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula, the North has strongly hinted that it will launch a long-range rocket or conduct a fourth nuclear test as it is preparing for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, which falls on Saturday. 
 
 South and North Korea reached a landmark deal on Aug. 25 to defuse military tension and resume the reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. 
 
 Experts said that the North's move may be intended to promote its regime as an advocate of human rights ahead of its anniversary. 
 
 In an interview with U.S. news cable network CNN in May, Joo admitted that he had intentionally entered the North on the belief that his arrest could have a good effect on inter-Korean relations. 
 
 Unlike Joo's case, the other three South Koreans faced criminal punishment as they were sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of spying for Seoul's intelligence agency. 
 
 "By releasing Joo, North Korea appears to give South Korea a message showing that the North protects human rights," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. 
 
 The professor said that nevertheless, along with the upcoming family reunions, Joo's repatriation is likely to set the stage for better inter-Korean ties. 
 
 pbr@yna.co.kr 
 
 sooyeon@yna.co.kr 
 
 (END)
– What was unprecedented in April is now becoming ... routine? The leaders of North and South Korea will meet again sometime in September, their third such meeting in five months, reports CNN. This time, however, the South's Moon Jae-in will travel to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong Un. High-level officials from the two nations announced the meeting after talks in the Demilitarized Zone on Monday. No agenda has been released, but the two sides have been discussing everything from a possible peace declaration to economic projects, notes Reuters. One potential sore spot: The plight of 12 North Korean women now in South Korea as restaurant workers. The North claims they were kidnapped—or perhaps tricked into defecting—and must be returned, while the South maintains they defected of their own accord in 2016 through China, per Yonhap News. "If our female citizens' repatriation issue is not resolved as quickly as possible, it could serve as an obstacle not just to the planned reunions of separated families between the two Koreas but also to the overall inter-Korean relations," said Uriminzokkiri, a propaganda website for the North, last month. South Korean officials declined to say if the issue came up in Monday's talks.