North Korean restaurant workers who defected to South Korea from China about two years ago have all been issued South Korean passports.

Twelve female workers of the Ryukyung Restaurant, a North Korean establishment in Ningbo, China, and their male manager, Heo Kang-il, arrived in South Korea in April 2016. 

Heo and one of the women had already been granted passports, but the eleven others remained without.

An official of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, or Minbyun, an organization of progressive lawyers, said Wednesday that the last two of the former restaurant employees recently received passports after their applications were repeatedly rejected.

The passport can be issued to anyone who is a South Korean citizen but the National Intelligence Service and the National Police Agency can reject an application after an individual background check.

[Photo : YONHAP News]