Defector 'shocked' she might have aided assassination of pastor helping North Koreans flee the regime

A North Korean defector has claimed she was forced to provide information on the movements of a pastor living in China who was helping defectors shortly before he was murdered by agents of Pyongyang's Ministry of State Security.

Han Chung-ryeol, a pastor at a church in China's Changbai City, helped to run a network that assisted people fleeing the border region before they could be caught and sent back to North Korea. He disappeared in April 2016 but was later found dead with a slashed throat.

The North was immediately suspected of being involved in Mr Han's death - a suspicion that has grown in recent months due to numerous reports of North Korean "abduction units" operating against dissidents and defectors who have managed to get over the border into China - although Chinese authorities said they were unable to find any evidence that Pyongyang had carried out the attack.

In an interview with the Seoul-based DailyNK news site, the woman said she was caught smuggling medicinal herbs and scrap metal into North Korea.

Local authorities learned that she had illegally crossed the border dozens of times and forced her to become an informant.

She was ordered to record the movements of Mr Han and pass the information on to security officers.

The woman, who has not been named, said she was "shocked" when she learned that the information she had been provided was used to kill Mr Han rather than just kidnap him.

The woman, who managed to defect from the North in June, also claimed that she was sexually assaulted by the security service personnel and "began to develop contempt" for the regime.