Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon has denied speculation that the National Intelligence Service orchestrated a mass defection of North Korean restaurant workers ahead of the 20th general elections in 2016.

Cho made the remark on Thursday when he appeared at a full session of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. 

He said that the group who worked at a North Korean restaurant in China came to South Korea of their own free will and they are leading lives as South Korean citizens. 

Cho said related agencies are looking into the suspicion, but there is no change in the government’s stance on the issue. 

Asked if the spy agency had blocked efforts for dialogue between the government and the restaurant workers, Cho said it had not. He said after he took office last year, the ministry had tried several times to hold discussions with the defectors but they did not wish for direct dialogue with the government.

[Photo : YONHAP News]