But group defections are rare, especially by staff who work in North Korean restaurants overseas, which are a key source of hard currency for the government in Pyongyang.
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Seven of other restaurant workers who did not join the 13 in defecting in April returned to Pyongyang and were later shown to a CNN reporter on a trip to North Korea.
Pyongyang has accused Seoul of abducting them, but Seoul strongly denies this.
This is the second known group escape in just over about a month and may suggest the deteriorating living conditions of North Koreans working overseas, as their home country has been under toughest-ever United Nations sanctions following its tests of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies earlier this year.
Cho said that the Seoul government’s position remains firm that the North’s denuclearization should come first before any inter-Korean dialogue.
A group of North Koreans working at a state-run restaurant overseas have defected, South Korea has confirmed.
The South Korean ministry did not go into details, including how many North Korean escaped or where the restaurant is located.
The staff are usually chosen for their loyalty to the North Korean leadership.
South Korea’s Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported that the workers were in Thailand.
South Korea estimates that North Korea is running approximately 130 restaurants in around 12 countries, including China, Vietnam and Cambodia, earning US$10 million annually, according to government sources.
The UN sanctions do not target the restaurants but Seoul has urged its citizens to avoid them, saying a boycott would block the foreign currency cash flow to the regime.
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The remarks were in response to media reports, published Monday, that two or three North Koreans were now in a Southeast Asian country waiting to possibly defect to South Korea. It has called for Seoul to permit their North Korean family members to have a face-to-face meeting with them.
