Two N. Korean restaurant workers stuck in China after not joining group defection

Posted on : 2016-04-18 16:22 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Sources say workers feared interrogation, and now could face punishment if sent back to North Korea
North Korean workers at the Ryukyung Restaurant in Ningbo
North Korean workers at the Ryukyung Restaurant in Ningbo

Two employees at an overseas North Korean restaurant told Chinese authorities they could not go back to North Korea after failing to join a group of 13 defectors who arrived in South Korea last week.

The possibility of additional defections from the staff at the Ryukyung restaurant in Ningbo, a city in China’s Zhejiang Province, is raising questions over whether Seoul acted rashly in announcing the arrival of the defecting group.

According to accounts on Apr. 17 from restaurant and North Korea sources, two female North Korean employees at Ryukyung left for Shanghai on Apr. 5 without telling the restaurant, but were subsequently apprehended and returned to Ningbo.

Status of 21 N. Korea workers from Ryukyung Restaurant inChina
Status of 21 N. Korea workers from Ryukyung Restaurant inChina

The same day, North Korean restaurant manager “H,” 36, and 12 female employees also traveled to Shanghai, where they boarded a flight to Malaysia before arriving in South Korea on Apr. 7.

Restaurant sources said the two employees had planned to join the other 13 in traveling to South Korea. They returned to Ningbo after restaurant staff found them traveling by taxi on the highway to Shanghai between 6 to 7 that evening, sources added.

They were immediately questioned by Chinese police.

“We can’t go back [to North Korea] now. We have to go to Shanghai,” they reportedly told the authorities.

Restaurant sources explained that the employees feared the grilling over responsibility they would face after the other 13 workers’ defection to South Korea. At the time, North Korean embassy staff had been dispatched from a nearby city to conduct an investigation around the restaurant.

Following their questioning by Chinese police, the two employees were having lunch with restaurant staff on Apr. 6 when they disappeared once again. Their whereabouts remain unknown. At that point, the 13 other employees had already left China the morning before.

“Five workers from the same lodging as the two women were among the 13 people who arrived in South Korea,” said a restaurant source.

“One of them was very close to [H], the manager,” the source added.

With both South and North Korean governments tight-lipped on the whereabouts of the two workers, observers are turning their attention to whether Seoul was aware of them and their hope of traveling to the South. Citing a North Korea source, Yonhap News reported on Apr. 12 that some of the remaining Ryukyung workers were “under South Korean government protection and awaiting the trip to South Korea.”

But some have suggested that the statement, if true, makes the Unification Ministry’s decision to announce the other 13 workers’ arrival on Apr. 8 even less comprehensible, as it would likely upset not only North Korea but also China and other countries in a way that would make the other two workers’ departure a riskier undertaking. Yonhap News also published a conflicting account on Apr. 14, stating that “no North Korean workers are known to be under South Korean government protection.” It is possible that one of the two reports was incorrect, or that some change in the situation occurred between Apr. 12 and 14.

Former co-workers voiced fears that the two employees may have been repatriated.

“If they did go to North Korea, then that would mean South Korea abandoned them,” a restaurant source said.

“I‘m scared they’re going to face severe punishment in North Korea.”

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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