Pyongyang has demanded the repatriation of 13 North Korean restaurant workers who recently defected to South Korea from China.

The North’s state-controlled propaganda Web site, Uriminzokkiri, on Friday called the incident an “unheard of crime and abduction case” in an article.

The article added that South Korean officials bribed the manager of the Pyongyang-owned restaurant and planned to kidnap the 13 North Koreans after falsely telling them to carry out a "special mission" in the South.

The publication called the act a clear case of abduction and also vowed not to condone the South’s human rights violations that had created thousands of North Korean escapees.

On Tuesday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) carried a statement by the Pyongyang-based Red Cross that also claimed Seoul "lured and abducted" the North Korea citizens. The South's Unification Ministry dismissed the claim, stressing that the defectors came to Seoul of their own free will.