5 North Koreans Found in South’s Waters Appear to Be Defectors<br />By CHOE SANG-HUNJULY 1, 2017<br />SEOUL, South Korea — Five North Koreans crossed into South Korean waters in a boat on Saturday, sailing across a heavily guarded maritime<br />border between the two nations in what appeared to be an attempt to flee the North, South Korean Coast Guard officials said.<br />South Korea, for its part, has accused the North of holding hundreds of South Korean fishermen against their will after their ships strayed into<br />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.<br />The North Koreans — four men and one woman — indicated<br />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.<br />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<br />that crossed the border on Saturday and another found off the eastern coast on June 23.<br />In 2015, three of the five North Korean sailors aboard a ship defected to South<br />Korea after their vessel was found adrift and sinking in South Korean waters.<br />The South Korean patrol ship first found the North Korean boat shortly after 7 p.m. on Saturday<br />and guided it to the nearby port of Mukho, Mr. Choi said.
