Pyongyang has called on Seoul to repatriate two North Korean men who are in South Korean custody after crossing the eastern sea border earlier this week, an official said Wednesday.

The North made the request in a message to South Korea via a Red Cross channel at the truce village of Panmunjom, which separates the two Koreas, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-jin told reporters.

The North‘s call came a day after the two men crossed the sea border into South Korea on a small boat.

It was not immediately clear whether the two North Koreans deliberately entered South Korean waters seeking asylum or if their two-ton wooden boat accidentally strayed across the border.

Park said South Korea will handle the case in accordance with the expressed will of the men and on humanitarian grounds, adding that they are being questioned by South Korean officials about their motives.

South Korea returns North Korean fishermen who drift into the South if they want to go back, but accepts any North Korean defectors who want to live in the South. 

(Yonhap News)