RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT. Thirteen North Koreans who had worked at a restaurant run by the isolated state in a third country have defected and are seeking political asylum in South Korea, the South's Unification Ministry says. SHOWS: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (APRIL 8, 2016) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SOUTH KOREAN UNIFICATION MINISTRY'S SPOKESMAN, JEONG JOON-HEE, WALKING INTO NEWS BRIEFING ROOM 2. JOURNALISTS SITTING 3. JEONG STANDING BEHIND PODIUM 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN UNIFICATION MINISTRY'S SPOKESMAN, JEONG JOON-HEE, SAYING: "Thirteen North Koreans who were deployed to work at a restaurant run by North Korea in a third country have defected together. One male, who was a manager, and 12 female workers arrived in Seoul on April 7." 5. JOURNALISTS TYPING 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN UNIFICATION MINISTRY'S SPOKESMAN, JEONG JOON-HEE, SAYING: "This is the first time that a group of people working for the same restaurant have defected from North Korea together and entered our country. Our government has decided to accept them on humanitarian grounds, respecting their will." 7. JOURNALISTS TYPING 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN UNIFICATION MINISTRY'S SPOKESMAN, JEONG JOON-HEE, SAYING: "There was a shared wish to go to South Korea and nobody was resistant to that." 9. NEWS BRIEFING IN PROGRESS 10 EXTERIOR OF SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT COMPLEX 11. GOVERNMENT FLAG FLYING UNKNOWN LOCATION (UNKNOWN DATE/RECENT) (SOUTH KOREAN UNIFICATION MINISTRY HANDOUT - ACCESS ALL) 12. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS WITH THEIR FACES BLURRED STORY: Thirteen North Koreans who had worked at a restaurant run by the isolated state in a third country have defected and are seeking political asylum in South Korea, the South said on Friday (April 8). "Thirteen North Koreans who were deployed to work at a restaurant run by North Korea in a third country have defected together. One male, who was a manager, and 12 female workers arrived in Seoul on April 7," said Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry, which handles North Korea issues. "This is the first time that a group of people working for the same restaurant have defected from North Korea together and entered our country. Our government has decided to accept them on humanitarian grounds, respecting their will," Jeong added. The workers likely faced further pressure from Pyongyang to send cash earned from the restaurant back home as other income sources are crimped by tough United Nations sanctions imposed against the regime last month, he said. "There was a shared wish to go to South Korea and nobody was resistant to that," Jeong quoted a person in the group as telling authorities. South Korea has discouraged its citizens from eating at North Korean restaurants abroad after it imposed new sanctions against Pyongyang in March following a U.N. Security Council resolution triggered by the North's fourth nuclear test, and media reports have said business has suffered. The restaurants, in countries such as China and Cambodia, generated an estimated $10 million in income annually which is channeled to the North, according to the South's Unification Ministry. It is unusual for the South Korean government to make a formal announcement about defections by North Koreans, or to even comment on them. Jeong said the government decided to go public about the arrivals because of the "unusual" nature of the defections. About 29,000 people had fled North Korea and come to the South as of March, including 1,276 last year, with numbers declining since a 2009 peak. Jeong declined to identify the country where the restaurant was located, or which country the group was in before arriving in South Korea, citing potential impact on diplomatic ties. He said South Korean authorities were confident of their status and wishes after interviewing them. North Korean defectors to South Korea typically travel through China to a third country before reaching the South. The North punishes those who are caught trying to defect, as well as their families.

• published: 11 Apr 2016
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