BEIJING -- A group of 13 Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) citizens holding valid passports left China last week, the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed on Monday.

"With valid passports, they entered and left China legally," the ministry's spokesman Lu Kang said at a briefing when asked to comment a report that 13 DPRK nationals had gone to the Republic of Korea from a restaurant in an unspecified third country, possibly China.

"As for illegal entry by DPRK citizens, China will always properly handle the issue in line with international and domestic law as well as humanitarian principles. That's our established policy," Lu added.