Seoul hearing on 12 ex-North Korean waitresses suspended

South Korean human right lawyers leave after a court hearing on the detention of North Korean defectors as an anti-North Korean protester, right, shouts to them in front of the Seoul District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. As South Korea’s main spy agency prepares a courtroom defense of its continued detention of 12 North Korean waitresses it says fled from China, Pyongyang is using the women’s relatives and colleagues to step up its accusations that they were tricked into leaving their jobs and essentially kidnapped.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A hearing in South Korea to determine whether 12 former North Korean waitresses are being detained illegally was suspended Tuesday after human rights lawyers who brought the case asked for the judge to be replaced.

The women, who had worked at a North Korea-run restaurant in China, came to South Korea in April along with their male manager. Their arrival has become a bitter point of contention between the rival Koreas, with Seoul saying they defected and chose to resettle in South Korea on their own and Pyongyang insisting they were kidnapped by South Korean spies.

Defectors from North Korea who arrive in South Korea are required to stay at a government facility to undergo questioning. The women are still being held and have not told their story in public.

The women did not appear at the hearing Tuesday at Seoul Central District Court. Some reports said they were worried about possible reprisals against their relatives in North Korea, while critics accuse the South Korean spy agency of preventing them from attending the hearing.

The rights lawyers demanded that the judge be replaced for allowing the session to proceed without the women’s presence, and the hearing was subsequently halted. The court said in a statement the session would resume after it reviews the lawyers’ request.

More than 29,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to South Korean government data. Many North Korean defectors have testified that they wanted to avoid the North’s harsh political system and poverty.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said earlier this year that North Korea was running about 130 restaurants overseas, mostly in China. In total, North Korea has about 50,000-60,000 workers abroad, mostly in Russia and China, to earn foreign currency for the country, it said.