2012110847

Date of submission: May 24 2016

N.K. restaurant staff in China

escape for possible defection.
Up to three North Korean restaurant staff have recently escaped their workplace in China for possible
defection to South Korea. Overseas restaurants operated by North Korea have served as one of the
main sources of hard currency for North Korea, with which the North is suspected of bankrolling its
nuclear and missile programs. Such restaurants are known to be facing financial difficulty after the
U.N. Security Council's slapped tougher sanctions on Pyongyang for its January nuclear test and longrange rocket launch in February. Pyongyang has claimed that South Korea kidnapped a group of North
Koreans who defected to Seoul last month. It has called for Seoul to permit their North Korean family
members to have a face-to-face meeting.