13 N. Korean restaurant workers defected voluntarily: S. Korea
- 6 years ago
통일부 "탈북종업원들, 자유의사로 입국"
The natino's unification ministry says... the North Korean restaurant workers who defected to the South in 2016... were not taken against their will, but came here voluntarily.
This comes a day after the UN's top envoy on North Korean human rights called on Seoul to conduct a thorough probe into their defection,... saying that he's concerned some were brought here without knowing their destination.
In April 2016, 12 North Korean waitresses and 1 restaurant manager escaped from a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China and defected to South Korea.
It was initially understood that they came voluntarily.
But their defection has been controversial in the past two months... after the manager told local broadcaster JTBC that the defectors were in fact "abducted" by an official from South Korea's national intelligence agency.
In the past two years, Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded that South Korea repatriate the restaurant workers.
The natino's unification ministry says... the North Korean restaurant workers who defected to the South in 2016... were not taken against their will, but came here voluntarily.
This comes a day after the UN's top envoy on North Korean human rights called on Seoul to conduct a thorough probe into their defection,... saying that he's concerned some were brought here without knowing their destination.
In April 2016, 12 North Korean waitresses and 1 restaurant manager escaped from a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China and defected to South Korea.
It was initially understood that they came voluntarily.
But their defection has been controversial in the past two months... after the manager told local broadcaster JTBC that the defectors were in fact "abducted" by an official from South Korea's national intelligence agency.
In the past two years, Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded that South Korea repatriate the restaurant workers.