South Korea will repatriate seven North Koreans found in southern waters on a fishing boat because they expressed a desire to go back to their communist homeland.
After questioning them, officials determined that they accidentally crossed into South Korean waters without any intentions to defect, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.
She said all seven expressed their desire to go back the North.
Lee said the South notified the North of the decision and plans to finalise the timing and other details in discussions with the North tomorrow.
More than 16,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Most arrive in the southern half of the divided peninsula via China and Southeast Asia. But n October, a group of 11 North Koreans who defected to the South came by boat.
The conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the sides still technically at war.
