UN investigating North Korea’s allegations about abducted workers
Seoul — On Thursday, a senior UN human rights official said he was investigating North Korea’s allegations that a dozen restaurant workers who arrived in the South from China last year were abducted against their will. Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said he spent part of a four-day visit to Seoul looking into the claims surrounding the biggest mass defection case involving North Koreans in several years. "I have received testimony taken by people in my office that shows inconsistencies in what may have happened," Quintana told a news briefing. North Korea says the 12 waitresses were abducted, and a manager who defected with them tricked them into making the journey. It has demanded the return of the women, but officials in Seoul say they traveled voluntarily and were admitted on humanitarian grounds. Some of the workers are now university students, according to several sources who have met them, but all have kept a low profile and myst...
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