A North Korean defector was sentenced to two years behind bars on Friday for trying to pass on information about fellow defectors in South Korea to Pyongyang authorities.

A local court in this southeastern city said it found the 45-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Kim, guilty of gathering information on about 20 defectors in South Korea and attempting to send it to the North.

She was indicted on charges related to South Korea's strict National Security Law that bans South Koreans, including North Korean defectors, from having contact with the North.

After fleeing North Korea, she entered South Korea via Thailand and Laos in 2011, but decided to go home to reunite with her family.

Court documents showed Kim committed the crime to earn the right to return to her homeland. 

In August 2012, she contacted the North Korean consulate in the Chinese city of Shenyang and was told to collect stories about North Koreans struggling to fit in in the South and identify those who arrange defections from the North.

In 2013, however, she had a change of heart and turned herself into South Korean authorities. It is unclear what led her to change her mind.

Kim said she had been fooled by a broker to flee to the South, where she thought she would be able to lead a comfortable life. She met the broker in China when she was temporarily staying there to find treatment for an illness.

Judge Kim Seong-yeop said Kim's account of how she escaped North Korea was dubious but decided to grant leniency considering her unfavorable situation.

"The court took into consideration that Kim appeared sincerely concerned for her family back home and that she never ended up sharing the information with North Korea," the judge said in a ruling.

Prosecutors had originally sought a prison sentence of four years. (Yonhap)