North Korea has disclosed the identities of three North Korean female employees who recently defected to the South, repeating its claim that South Korea abducted them.

The North’s state-controlled propaganda Web site, Uriminzokkiri, on Wednesday unveiled the photos of the three women, saying that they worked at a North Korean restaurant called Pyongyang Sonbong-kwan, in China's Shaanxi Province.

It then claimed that South Korea's National Intelligence Service(NIS) abducted them in a systematic scheme, just how it kidnapped 12 other North Koreans in April.

On Sunday, the North Korean Web site criticized the South Korean government for what it called the abduction of three North Koreans, saying it is a grave political provocation toward the North and a heinous crime against humanity.

Late last month, Seoul’s Unification Ministry confirmed the three North Koreans escaped a Pyongyang-owned restaurant in Shaanxi Province and defected to the South. Seoul said they sought to defect as another group of North Koreans did when they fled from their North Korean restaurant in Ningbo, China in April.