A spokesman for Seoul’s Unification Ministry, Jeong Joon-hee, said people working in overseas restaurants have defected before, but never multiple workers from the same restaurant.
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The spokesman said that the latest defection indicates that the tougher United Nations sanctions have begun to generate impacts on curbing the North.
“There was a shared wish to go to South Korea and nobody was resistant to that”, Mr Jeong quoted a person in the group as telling authorities.
Jeong said one male and 12 female North Korean workers arrived in the South on Thursday.
North Koreans across the country have been mobilised in a “70 day campaign” to prepare for the party gathering, with towns and cities across the country being spruced-up and prettified for the event.
“That’s because we are concerned about a possible diplomatic clash with a third country, the protection of the group and other possible cases that might arise in the future”, he added. Please see our terms of service for more information. “North Koreans in overseas restaurants are believed to be under heavy pressure to send money to their country”. “We believe that in order to win the competition, they must be from relatively good families”, Jeong said.
North Korea says it has successfully conducted an engine test of a new intercontinental ballistic rocket it claims will strengthen its ability to stage nuclear strikes on the United States. An estimated $10m (£7m) in revenue is channelled back to Pyongyang each year from this network of restaurants, where staff often perform musical routines as well as serving North Korean food.
“The government has accepted their request to come to South Korea on humanitarian grounds”, Jeong said.
Alongside the UN Security Council resolution, the South Korean government also on March 8 announced its own set of unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang, advising South Koreans not to visit North Korean restaurants overseas, particularly in China, as they function as sources of hard currency for the regime.
In recent weeks, the North’s state media has carried regular threats of preemptive nuclear strikes against both countries.
Overseas labor is a large source of foreign currency for North Korea, which earns between $200 million and $300 million from approximately 50,000 workers per year, according to the Seoul-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights. Relations between Japan and South Korea have not been particularly warm recently, but the two countries have been brought together by North Korea?s launch of a rocket and recent nuclear tests, Reuters reported.
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The lion’s share work in China and Russian Federation.
