South Korea: Overseas North Korean restaurant workers flee

The announcement by Seoul's Unification Ministry came after South Korean media reported that two or three female employees at a North Korean-run restaurant in China fled and went to an unidentified Southeast Asian country earlier this month.

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.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday that the North Koreans had worked at a restaurant in the central Chinese city of Xian and that they may have traveled to Thailand.

South Korean officials believe overseas North Korean restaurants have been suffering economically since stronger international sanctions were applied against North Korea over its nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

The restaurant workers who defected to the South in April have said that their restaurant was struggling to meet demands from North Korean authorities at home for foreign currency, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.