Nervous North Korean authorities are recalling students from China following the defections of workers from a North Korean restaurant in Ningbo, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday citing local sources.

One staff member at a university in the border city of Dandong said most of the 20 North Korean students who had been studying there have recently disappeared. The staffer added it looks as if they've all been recalled by North Korea.

The staff member said most of the students were children of North Koreans who were sent to China to work for Pyongyang's trading companies. They stopped coming to school around April 13 and 14, which was just after the defections of North Korean restaurant workers.

North Korea will probably stop issuing permits to students to study abroad, according to another source, as this is a pattern that occurs each time a North Korean defection takes place overseas.

A government official here said a considerable number of senior North Korean officials who defected from abroad have brought with them their children who were studying abroad. "North Korean authorities will probably think twice about sending officials abroad along with their children from now on," he added.

