SEOUL: According to the government, South Korean government detained a North Korean ship carrying people on Tuesday, October 24.
Early on Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the small, wooden ship was stopped off the northeast area of Sokcho in South Korea after being spotted close to the Northern Limit Line, which serves as the two Koreas’ official water border.
Four North Koreans were on board the ship and had declared their intention to desert, according to the Yonhap news agency, though the government did not specify how many people were there.
Nine people crossed the northern sea limit on a fishing vessel in May, making it the second known instance of North Koreans doing so in an effort to defect.
Instead of attempting to cross the strongly guarded boundary between North and South Korea, the majority of North Korean defectors travel through China and Southeast Asia.
Two North Vietnamese fishermen were deported from South Korea in 2019 on suspicion of killing 16 shipmates while crossing the sea border.
South Korea announced this month that it had protested to China over the alleged forced relocation of many North Koreans, who, according to rights organizations, risk prison and abuse at the hands of the country’s authorities.
When questioned about a report that Beijing had deported about 600 North Korean defectors, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson responded that there were no” so-called detainees” in China at the time.