Pyongyang demands restaurant workers back from South Korea

North Korea says Seoul should show its willingness to improve relations by sending back 12 North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016.

North Korean Kim Jong Un.

North Korean Kim Jong Un. Source: KCNA/AAP

North Korea is demanding that South Korea send back 12 North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016, saying such a move would demonstrate Seoul's willingness to improve relations.

The North's statement on Saturday came a week after Seoul said it would look more closely into the circumstances surrounding the women's arrival following a media report that suggested some of them might have been brought to the South against their will.
Earlier in the week, North Korea cancelled a high-level meeting with the South over US-South Korean military exercises and threatened to call off a planned summit between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and US President Donald Trump.

The cancellation cooled what had been an unusual flurry of diplomatic moves from Pyongyang.


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