South Korea: Overseas North Korean restaurant workers flee
Earlier in the day, North Korea again proposed holding a working-level meeting with South Korea in late May or early June in preparation for military talks, following the same proposal made over the weekend.
Several more North Korean workers have fled their jobs in an overseas restaurant run by the isolated North, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday after a media report said three people had escaped from China and were claiming asylum.
South Korean news agency Yonhap had reported Monday that three women in their 20s were waiting in Thailand to board a flight to Seoul after leaving their jobs at a North Korean state-run restaurant in the Chinese city of Xian.
The two Koreas have remained in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The staff are usually chosen for their loyalty to the North Korean leadership.
The location of the restaurant from where the waitresses defected has not been confirmed, but some South Korean reports have suggested they left from a restaurant in Xi'an in central China, rather than a Shanghai location.
The families of some of the defectors were also interviewed by CNN in May. Officials at the unification and foreign ministries refused to provide further details about the North Koreans and their escapes, citing worries about their safety and potential diplomatic problems with concerned countries.
Observers have noted that their relatively high social status, minimum middle-class background and overseas experience likely allowed them easier access to South Korean culture and outside information while Pyongyang's isolation is deepening in the face of tightening global sanctions.
"With regards to the defection this time, I would like to tell you that our government is dealing with [the defection] according to our custom of handling North Korean defectors". Many defectors have testified that they wanted to avoid the North's harsh political system and poverty. News stories displayed here appear in our category for worldwide and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world's oldest and largest news organization. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
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