In 2012, when the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention asked the North Korean government about the status of Shin Dong-hyuk's father, they responded that there was no such person.[52] Then in 2014, after identifying Shin Dong-hyuk as Shin In Geun, the North Korean government produced a video[53] which attempted to discredit Shin through interviews with his father and other supposed witnesses. His father denied Shin had grown up in a prison camp. According to the video, Shin had worked in a mine and fled North Korea after being accused of raping a 13-year-old girl. It also said that Shin's mother and brother were guilty of murder. The video claimed he was now spreading "preposterous false information" about human rights. Shin confirmed the man was his father. He said that the rape allegation was a fabrication that he had heard before. He later confirmed that his mother and brother were convicted of murder, but stated they were innocent.[2][54] Shin said that he believed the North Korean government was sending him a message to be quiet about human rights abuses or his father would be killed, in effect holding his father hostage.[54] The video prompted Shin to recant parts of his story.[2][9]
On September 24, 2014, the DPRK Permanent Representative Department to the United Nations issued a communique refuting the DPRK human rights report, including the "full text of the Shin Dong-hyuk information (신동혁 자료전문)." Next to the information also given in the videos, it included additional information on Shin's birthplace and his father: Shin was allegedly born in Soksan-ri, Pukchang, South Pyongan Province (평안남도 북창군 석산리) and later moved into Pongchang-ri, Pukchang, South Pyongan Province (평안남도 북창군 봉창리). He had committed an illegal border crossing to China and had been repatriated in 2002. Shin's father was born in 1944 in Ryongbuk-ri, Mundok, South Pyongan Province, not 1946. It was said that his father have married Shin's mother in 1972 and sent to a prison in 1975 for theft of state property (국가재산략취행위죄).[1]
