North Korea on Thursday issued two reports through its official media calling on South Korea to return a group of 13 defectors who fled from a North Korean restaurant in China earlier this month.
The Korean Central News Agency quoted an unnamed spokesman from North Korea's Red Cross Society as saying the families of the 12 women from the group "are earnestly asking for direct contact with them as early as possible," adding that "what we want is to let the daughters meet their parents and directly clarify their stand."
The 12 restaurant workers and their male manager left their jobs in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo and fled to South Korea via Southeast Asia.