North Korean restaurant defectors released in South Korea

     

Image copyright AP

Image caption North Korea runs dozens of restaurants in other countries as a valuable source of income

A group of 13 North Koreans who defected from China to South Korea earlier this year have been released from custody, officials say.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said 12 women and one man had begun the process of resettlement in South Korea.
They defected in April from a Pyongyang-run restaurant, with Seoul calling the size of the group "unprecedented".
But the spy agency kept them in custody as the case was high profile.
North Korean defectors are usually sent to a state resettlement facility for three months after being questioned by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

But at the time, the NIS said North Korea was using the case for propaganda, claiming the female workers had been abducted by Seoul's spy agency.
North Korea runs some 130 restaurants in other countries. The restaurants provide a much-needed source of income for North Korea.