Authorities in South Korea reported on Tuesday they had detained a North Korean vessel with four people on board. The detention came amid an increase in the number of North Koreans crossing the border.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff informed of the detention of the small wooden vessel near the South Korean city of Sokcho after it had been sighted near the inter-Korean maritime border early Tuesday morning.
The military monitored the vessel using shore-based surveillance equipment such as radar and Thermal Observation Device (TOD).
In collaboration with the Korean Coast Guard, the vessel was taken under custody off the eastern coast of Sokcho.
The army did not disclose the number of people aboard the boat, but the Korean Coast Guard reported that the vessel was carrying four North Koreans.
A South Korean government official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Radio Free Asia that escapees had expressed their intention to defect.
In such cases, the Ministry of Unification ascertains the sincerity of the fugitives’ intention to defect. If the intention is confirmed as sincere, it would be the second known case of North Koreans crossing the maritime border to defect, following an incident in May when two families of nine crossed the western part of the NLL in a fishing boat.
South Korea under former President Moon Jae-in sent back two North Korean fishermen in 2019 who allegedly killed 16 crew members of their ship while crossing the sea border.
The news of the fugitives comes amid an increase in escaping North Korean fugitives crossing the border. According to the Unification Ministry, the number of fugitives from North Korea travelling South reached a total of 139 by the third quarter of this year.
A ministry official told reporters that it remained unclear whether that number would continue to rise in the future. However, China’s repatriation of fugitives from North Korea following the Hangzhou Asian Games indicates that fugitives may decide to directly cross the inter-Korean border into the South.
Human Rights Watch reported that Chinese authorities forcibly returned more than 500 North Koreans back to their homeland. Most of the refugees were civilians and religious figures arrested while attempting to travel to South Korea from China.
