The government is calling for the immediate release of South Korean citizen Ko Hyon-chol, following the announcement of his arrest in North Korea.

Seoul's Unification Ministry on Friday demanded the repatriation of 53-year old Ko, dismissing Pyongyang's claim that the defector-turned-South Korean attempted to kidnap North Korean orphans.

While denying allegations that the South Korean state intelligence service was behind the attempted abduction plot, the South accused North Korea of using Ko for its propaganda activities.

AFP said Friday that Ko confessed during a tearful media conference in Pyongyang attended by foreign journalists that he tried to take two North Korean minors to the South.  
 
Ko fled from the North in January 2013 and stayed in China for a year before entering South Korea in 2014 through Laos and Thailand. AFP said that Ko was arrested in May this year after crossing the Sino-North Korea border on an inflatable boat, which he planned to use to ferry back the two orphaned girls, aged eight and nine.