A North Korean refugee in South Korea has reportedly applied to visit her Stalinist homeland through the North Korean Embassy in China.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun reported that during her trip to China in early November, the North Korean woman in her twenties contacted the embassy’s consulate in Beijing.

She reportedly told the consular staff that she was a refugee but wished to visit the North in order to give money to relatives still living there.

The office deferred a decision on the case, saying it could not decide on its own whether to allow her visit.

The woman is the first North Korean defector to request an entry visa to visit her former communist homeland.