Three North Koreans who recently defected from China worked in a joint-venture shabu-shabu restaurant in Weinan, Shaanxi Province, defectors' magazine News Focus International said Wednesday.

The three had earlier worked in a North Korean restaurant in Shenyang, Liaoning Province but moved to Weinan a few months ago with other North Korean workers because business was bad, according to Kim Yong-hwa of NK Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea.

All three are women in their 20s. They are in a Southeast Asian country waiting to fly to South Korea.