Seoul – A group of 13 North Koreans who worked in the same restaurant abroad has defected to South Korea, Seoul officials said on Friday.

Jeong Joon-hee, a South Korean ministry spokesman, told newsmen in a press conference in Seoul.

The 12 women and one man worked in an unspecified country, and they arrived in South Korea on Thursday.

“It marked the first time that a group of North Koreans at the same restaurant has opted to come to South Korea at once,’’ Jeong Joon-hee, a South Korean ministry spokesman, told a press conference.

“The government has accepted their request to come to South Korea on humanitarian grounds.

“North Korean-run restaurants overseas are facing new difficulties after recent UN sanctions against Pyongyang for its January nuclear test and long-range missile launch in February,’’ he said.

The restaurants, operating under the name Pyongyang, are mostly in China close to the border, but there are also branches in several other Asian countries.

They have been one of the few sources of foreign currency for the isolated regime.

A manager of the branch in Dhaka, Bangladesh told newsmen in February 2014 that she kept some of the income to run the restaurant, and sent the rest back to Pyongyang.

Report says many North Koreans flee the country each year due to famine and repression, while most cross the border into China or travel via other countries to South Korea.