The United Nations dismissed an appeal filed by families of 12 North Korean defectors, who claimed the group is being detained by the South Korean government after they fled from a North Korean restaurant in China in 2016.

In a recent report, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) said the dismissal came after the families failed to prove that the 12 restaurant workers are in a situation where they could not make the appeal themselves nor through a legal representative.

The 12 female workers and their restaurant manager defected in April 2016 from a North Korean state-run restaurant in the Chinese city of Ningbo.

The manager later claimed South Korea's state spy agency was involved in the defection and the families of the women filed an appeal with the UN in January 2017, claiming they were being detained by the South Korean government.

The families said they had taken all possible legal steps in South Korea for the protection of the women's rights, but their efforts were in vain.

Seoul, at the time, argued that the families made no effort to confirm the defectors' wishes and cooperation before filing the appeal.