Group of N. Koreans crossed maritime border earlier this month: officials

The military authorities found the ship approaching the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea at night on May 6 and sent troops to intercept it soon after it sailed across the maritime boundary, according to the sources. Korea Times file

A group of North Koreans, including children, crossed the de facto inter-Korean sea border aboard a fishing boat earlier this month and are currently undergoing questioning by South Korean authorities, sources said Thursday.

The military authorities found the ship approaching the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea at night on May 6 and sent troops to intercept it soon after it sailed across the maritime boundary, according to the sources.

The local daily Dong-A Ilbo reported earlier that the North Koreans include two families and they have expressed their intention to defect. If confirmed, it would mark the first such defection case, involving a family group, since July 2017.

An official at the unification ministry said a routine interagency questioning is under way to verify whether they have an intention for defection here, while refusing to go into detail on the border crossing.

A military official neither confirmed nor denied it.

"We cannot confirm details on that, but our military has been maintaining a thorough readiness posture to prepare against the possibility of North Korean provocations and of defections," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Observers said the inflow of North Koreans into the South might be another sign of economic and other hardships that people in the impoverished nation are facing amid biting international sanctions.

In recent years, the number of North Korean defectors here dropped due in large part to the reclusive state's stringent border controls put in place to fend off the spread of COVID-19. The number, which was tallied at around 1,000 in 2019, dipped to 229 in 2020 and 63 in 2021. Last year, it stood at 67. (Yonhap)

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