On Tuesday, South Korean authorities detained a North Korean boat carrying people considered to be seeking to defect from the isolated nation, the military said.
The small, wooden vessel was stopped off the South Korean eastern city of Sokcho after being seen near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea boundary between the two Koreas, early on Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The military did not reveal how many people were aboard, but Yonhap news agency said that four North Koreans were on the vessel and had voiced their intent to defect.
It is the second known case of North Koreans crossing the sea border to seek defection in current months after nine people crossed the western sea boundary on a fishing boat in May.
Most North Korean escapees make their way through China and Southeast Asia, rather than trying to cross the heavily patrolled border between North Korea and South Korea.
South Korea deported two North Korean fishermen, in 2019, suspected of killing 16 shipmates aboard their vessel while crossing the sea border.
South Korea this month said that it had protested to China over the suspected forced repatriation of a considerable number of North Koreans, who rights groups say face imprisonment and abuse at the hands of North Korean authorities.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that at the time there were no “so-called defectors” in China when asked about a report China had deported about 600 North Korean defectors.
