STOCKHOLM — Ever felt like calling up a complete stranger in Sweden?

Now is your chance.

The Swedish Tourist Association has set up a hotline that lets callers worldwide "get connected to a random Swede."

On its website, the nonprofit group says the idea is "to spark people's curiosity about Sweden — our culture, nature and mindset. To help us do this, we have the people of Sweden."

It's not completely random. The Swedes who take the calls have volunteered by downloading an app. But they are not vetted or given any instructions about what to say.

"It's like when Swedes travel the world. You don't know who they're going to talk to and what they're going to say," said Magnus Ling, the head of the Swedish Tourist Association.

About 3,000 people had dialed the "Swedish Number" by midday Thursday, a day after it was launched, and roughly the same number of Swedes had signed up to answer calls, Ling said.

The website says the initiative honors the 250th anniversary of Sweden's 1766 Freedom of the Press Act, believed to be the world's first law supporting the freedom of expression.

Ling admitted there was another motive: recruiting members to the tourism association, which is funded through membership fees. Swedes who sign up to receive calls will receive an email inviting them to join the group, he said.

The calls are not monitored but they are recorded, "so that if someone says I was threatened or harassed we can go back and see who it was and even block that number," Ling said.

The website didn't say that calls are recorded when AP checked it Thursday. Ling said it was listed in the user terms, which those answering the calls — but not those making them — must agree to. He later called back saying the information would be added to the FAQ section of the website.

The biggest number of incoming calls has come from Turkey. Ling said he didn't know why, but thought it had to do with the initiative getting attention there both in traditional media and social media.

After signing up to test the service, this Stockholm-based AP reporter received four calls, about one an hour. The first was a woman from Turkey with limited English skills. The second hung up. The third was an engineering student from Britain. And the fourth was another journalist: Tim Nudd, creative editor at Adweek in New York.

"I just wanted to call and see how this whole thing works," said Nudd.

He, too, was writing an article about it.

The hotline follows a similar initiative on Twitter by the Swedish Institute, the government's own PR agency. Since 2011 it lets a different Swedish citizen manage its official @Sweden account every week.

Ling said the feedback he had received on the hotline was almost all positive, though he said a small number of callers were just trying to hook up with Swedish women.

"I've heard of just one or two such calls," Ling said.

Story: Karl Ritter / Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — Thirteen North Koreans working at the same restaurant in a foreign country have defected to South Korea, Seoul officials said Friday.

People working in North Korean-operated restaurants overseas have previously defected, but this is the first time multiple workers have escaped from the same restaurant, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee told reporters in Seoul.

North Korean defections are a bitter point of contention between the rival Koreas. Pyongyang usually accuses Seoul of enticing North Korean citizens to defect, something Seoul denies.

Overseas North Korean workers are usually thought to be chosen largely because of their loyalty.

Jeong said one male and 12 female North Korean workers arrived in the South on Thursday. He didn't reveal the country where they were working or the route they took to avoid diplomatic problems and possibly endanger North Koreans still working in the country.

The Associated Press called a number of North Korean restaurants in Asia, and all were open except one located in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Danang, Vietnam. A person who answered the telephone at the hotel said the Pyongyang Restaurant had closed two weeks ago and all the Korean staff had left the country. She declined to provide more details or identify herself. It was unclear whether the restaurant was connected to the defections.

The North Korean defectors told South Korean officials that they learned about the South and began to distrust North Korean propaganda by watching South Korean TV dramas and movies and from searching the Internet while living overseas, Jeong said.

South Korean officials believe overseas North Korean restaurants have been suffering economically since stronger international sanctions were applied against North Korea over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. Jeong said the defectors told South Korean officials that their restaurant was struggling to meet demands from North Korean authorities at home for foreign currency.

South Korea recently advised its citizens not to patronize North Korean restaurants, although such visits are not illegal. South Korea's spy agency estimates that North Korea runs about 130 restaurants in other countries — about 100 in China and the others in Russia, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

In a report to the U.N. General Assembly in October last year, Marzuki Darusman, a U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said more than 50,000 North Koreans are working in foreign countries, mostly in China and Russia, providing a source of money for Pyongyang. He cited various studies, including a 2012 report by the International Network for the Human Rights of North Korean Overseas Labor that estimated North Korea was earning as much as USD$2.3 billion annually from the workers it sent abroad.

The Unification Ministry's website says more than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea as of March. But there have been only a few incidents in which large groups of North Korean defectors entered South Korea at once.

North Korea in 2004 accused South Korea of kidnapping its citizens after the South airlifted 468 North Koreans from Vietnam. Seoul said the North Koreans fled their country into China and then traveled overland to Vietnam. In 2011, nine North Koreans used a small boat to defect to South Korea by sea.

Story: Associated Press

Related stories:

N. Korean Restaurants in Bangkok and Beijing Emptier Amid Standoff with South

North Korean Follows Path to Freedom in Bangkok

South Koreans Told to Boycott Overseas North Korean Restaurants

Table the Politics and Bite Into North Korean Cuisine at 'Pyongyang Okryu'

CATO, Philippines — As Asian countries jostle for territory in the South China Sea, one Filipino fisherman is taking a stand.

He has faced down Chinese coast guard rifles, and even engaged in a stone-throwing duel with the Chinese last month that shattered two windows on his outrigger.

"They'll say, 'Out, out of Scarborough,'" Renato Etac says, referring to Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcropping claimed by both the Philippines and China. He yells back, "Where is the document that shows Scarborough is Chinese property?"

At one level, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea are a battle of wills between American and Chinese battleships and planes. At another level, they are cat-and-mouse chases between the coast guards of several countries and foreign fishermen, and among the fishing boats themselves.

Indonesia seized a Chinese fishing boat last month and arrested eight fishermen, only to have a Chinese coast guard vessel ram the fishing boat as it was being towed, allowing it to escape.

Vietnam's coast guard chased away more than 100 Chinese boats over a two-week period, its state media reported this week, and made a rare seizure of a Chinese ship carrying 100,000 liters (26,400 gallons) of diesel oil, reportedly for sale to fishing boats in the area.

The South China Sea, a hodgepodge of overlapping territorial claims in the Pacific, is both strategically important and a vital shipping route for international trade. It may also contain valuable oil and natural gas reserves.

As tensions ratchet up, though, it is perhaps those who make a living at sea who feel it the most. Here are some stories from fishermen around the region:

In this Feb. 20, 2015, photo, provided by Renato Etac, a Chinese Coast Guard boat approaches Filipino fishermen on Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Photo: Renato Etac / Associated Press

Philippines: The Guardian of Scarborough Shoal

Renato Etac has had dozens of encounters with Chinese ships.

More than once, a small team of Chinese coast guardsmen on a rubber boat approached his boat and pointed their rifles at him, but he says he knew they would not fire and risk starting a war.

At other times, the Chinese will surge as if to hit his boat, but the 37-year-old fisherman uses his keen knowledge of Scarborough Shoal — where he has fished for Spanish mackerel, trevally and grouper since he was a teenager — to outmaneuver them.

Etac says he just wants to defend his livelihood in waters that used to be open to all. China took control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a two-month standoff with Philippine government ships. It sits about 230 kilometers west of the Philippines, and 1,000 kilometers from the Chinese coast.

"It's like quarreling, like playing games," he says. "Yelling, dirty finger, everything's there. Sometimes I use expletives in different dialects and I get to laugh when I see them, because they don't understand what I'm saying."

He enjoys what he calls the territorial "debates" in the high seas, though his earnings from a weeklong fishing expedition have dropped by more than half to 3,000 pesos (2, 285 baht), because of both the Chinese disruptions and competition.

"He's like the guardian of Scarborough, sir," said Greggy Etac, a relative and a fellow fisherman. "I used to sail with him, but now, I'm scared."

In this Dec. 24, 2015, photo, provided by Filipino fisherman Renato Etac, a Chinese Coast Guard boat approaches Filipino fishermen near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Photo: Renato Etac / Associated Press

China: Coast Guard To The Rescue

Chinese fishermen working out of the Hainan island port of Tanmen say they now enjoy much greater support from their country's beefed-up coast guard.

They have been forced to range further out to sea because of the heavy depletion of coastal fisheries, says Li Xianchuan, a 64-year-old crew member who has been fishing in and around Scarborough, the Spratly islands and the closer-in Paracels — claimed also by Vietnam — for 40 years.

"There are many more fish in the Nansha islands, particularly Huangyan island," he says, using the Chinese terms for the contested Spratly group and Scarborough Shoal.

In previous years, Chinese government ships would issue radio warnings about the presence of Philippine patrol ships around Scarborough Shoal.

"It was very dangerous and scary," he says, as his 90-ton vessel takes on fresh water in preparation for a foray into the South China Sea. "We had to run around the reefs to get away from big (Philippine) boats. Thanks to the shallow water and submerged reefs, their big boats could not enter the reefs. We played hide-and-seek inside the reef until their boats gave up and left."

Conditions for Chinese fishermen have vastly improved with the addition of new and larger Chinese coast guard vessels and a more proactive approach, Li says. A call to the coast guard will bring help within two to three hours, he says.

Fishing in the South China Sea remains perilous, Li says. Fishermen must contend with rogue sailors from Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia who might try to rob them of their catches and fishing equipment. Li says he has been fired on once, and knows of several fishermen killed in encounters with Philippine boats.

In this March 31, 2016, photo, Taiwanese fisherman Hong Huai-jen, stands on his boat at Donggong Fishery Port in Pingtung County, in southern Taiwan. Photo: Johnson Lai / Associated Press

Taiwan: Fear of Banditry at Sea

Heightened competition, and even banditry, is making it ever-harder to make a living, says Taiwanese fishing boat owner Hong Huai-jen.

"Now, they are not only fishing in the South China Sea, but have also broken into our territorial waters," Hong says, standing by his boat in the southern Taiwan port of Donggang, which looks out on the Taiwan Strait.

His boat was surrounded last November by a group of Vietnamese fishing boats in waters off Taiwan, presumably for the purpose of robbing him. He managed to give them the slip and called the Taiwanese coast guard for help. The Vietnamese boats had dispersed by the time help arrived.

"Taiwanese fishermen don't have any weapons," Hong says. "Once they board our boats, there's nothing we can do. We would be detained and we have to pay for our release."

He has been fishing for 14 years from his home port on Xiaoliuqiu, an island in the Taiwan Strait.

"There's a big difference compared with the business we had before," he says. "My father has worked as a fisherman for about 40 years. The fishery resources were rich, and there were fewer fishing boats before. But now, the resources are thin and there are lots of boats."

In this April 6, 2016, photo, Secretary-General of Indonesian Fishermen’s Association Anton Leonard speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Tatan Syuflana / Associated Press

Indonesia: Ancestral Disputes

Fish-rich waters around Indonesia's Natuna Islands have a long history of being contested, says Anton Leonard, a fisherman and exporter who is secretary-general of the Indonesian Fishermen's Association representing traditional fishermen.

"Fishermen that come from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China have told native fishermen that Natuna waters are their traditional fishing grounds since the time of their ancestors," says Leonard. "Local fishermen in Natuna could not resist their presence because some of them believe the claims, others because such vessels are much bigger, more advanced and sometimes also carrying weapons."

Native fisherman haven't been directly affected by South China Sea incidents that involve Chinese patrol boats, likely because they don't venture far out into Indonesia's exclusive economic zone, he says. But Indonesia's crackdown on foreign fishing vessels in its waters and a policy against "transshipment" of fish between boats at sea has affected the livelihood of traditional fisherman because they have fewer opportunities to sell their catch. At the same time, the government lacks a comprehensive strategy to empower the fishermen and improve their industry, Leonard says.

"We are not afraid to face foreign boats coming into our territory," Leonard said. "We're eager to help the government and waiting to be involved in the defense of the country, even if only to be able to inform the local authorities about their presence within our waters."