5 North Koreans Found in South’s Waters Appear to Be Defectors
By CHOE SANG-HUNJULY 1, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — Five North Koreans crossed into South Korean waters in a boat on Saturday, sailing across a heavily guarded maritime
border between the two nations in what appeared to be an attempt to flee the North, South Korean Coast Guard officials said.
South Korea, for its part, has accused the North of holding hundreds of South Korean fishermen against their will after their ships strayed into
North Korean waters, or in some cases they were, according to the South, abducted by the North in the decades after the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North Koreans — four men and one woman — indicated
that they wanted to defect to the South when their boat was stopped by a South Korean Coast Guard patrol ship south of the maritime border and off the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, the officials said.
This year alone, seven North Korean boats with a total of 28 people on board have been rescued by the South Korean Navy or Coast Guard, including the boat
that crossed the border on Saturday and another found off the eastern coast on June 23.
In 2015, three of the five North Korean sailors aboard a ship defected to South
Korea after their vessel was found adrift and sinking in South Korean waters.
The South Korean patrol ship first found the North Korean boat shortly after 7 p.m. on Saturday
and guided it to the nearby port of Mukho, Mr. Choi said.
