13 North Koreans working in overseas restaurant defect to Seoul

Seoul: At least 13 North Koreans working in an overseas restaurant have defected to South Korea this week, Seoul's unification ministry said on Friday.

Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told an emergency press briefing that one male manager and 12 female employees, dispatched from North Korea to work in a state-run overseas restaurant, arrived in Seoul on Thursday.

It marked the first time that a group of North Koreans working at the same overseas restaurant have defected to South Korea, Xinhua reported.

South Korea has also recommended to its people not to visit North Korea-run restaurants when going on an overseas trip.

The UN Security Council adopted tougher-than-ever sanctions on North Korea last month over Pyongyang's nuclear test in January and its launch in February of a long-range rocket, which was condemned as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology.