13 North Koreans working in overseas restaurant defect to 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.