Three North Koreans restaurant workers who used to work at a China-based restaurant have arrived in South Korea, local media reported Wednesday, citing government sources.

The defectors, in their late 20s, are reportedly all female and come from Pyongyang. Sources said they are likely to have arrived on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.

The three workers are believed to have deserted their workplace, a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China’s northwestern province of Shanxi, on around May 16, and they have been staying at a shelter in Thailand. They reportedly used a land route without passports.

North Korea operates restaurants overseas -- mostly in Asia -- for the purpose of acquiring foreign currency. But the number of customers at such places are believed to have dwindled considerably since the U.N. Security Council slapped economic sanctions on the North in March.

It marks the second defection of North Korea’s overseas restaurant workers since 13 employees at a China-based restaurant arrived in Seoul in April. The Unification Ministry said then that the sanctions have affected the mass defection.

The ministry confirmed the mass defection later in the day, but refused to verify the routes taken by the defectors.

In response to the recent mass defection, North Korea claimed that the South kidnapped the defectors in April. In an interview with CNN, arranged by North Korean authorities, the defectors’ families claimed that the 13 workers had been kidnapped and are being starved by the South Korean government.

The South Korean government denied such allegations.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)