Two North Korean nationals who were found adrift on a wooden boat in the West Sea earlier this month are currently under investigation by South Korean authorities, the military said Friday.
According to military authorities, a South Korean Navy P-3 maritime patrol aircraft detected the small vessel drifting approximately 170 kilometers west of Eocheongdo, an island in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, at 11:17 a.m. on March 7.
Upon confirming the vessel’s origin with the Coast Guard, the military found two North Korean men on board. Details of their identities have not been disclosed.
Initial assessments suggest that their vessel likely malfunctioned and unintentionally crossed the Northern Limit Line, a de facto maritime boundary between the two Koreas established under the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953.
The waters where the vessel was found lie within a section of the West Sea where South Korea and China permit mutual fishing activities under a provisional agreement due to overlapping exclusive economic zones in the region.
The two individuals are currently in South Korean custody, undergoing a joint investigation by the military and relevant agencies, including the National Intelligence Service. According to local reports, they have not clearly expressed an intention to defect to the South.
Seoul is reviewing possible ways to contact the North should the men wish to return, given that all inter-Korean communication lines remain severed.
In a similar case in July 2019, under the Moon Jae-in administration, South Korea promptly repatriated North Koreans who had mistakenly crossed the NLL in the East Sea after confirming their intent to return.
At the time, communication was conducted through the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong, which was destroyed by Pyongyang in June 2020 and has since led to a sharp deterioration in inter-Korean communication.
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