Nine North Korean defectors who were spotted in a small boat off Japan’s west coast last month arrived in South Korea on Tuesday after Tokyo sent them on to their desired destination, a Foreign Ministry official in Seoul said.

The defectors, including three children, were found drifting on the wooden boat by the Japanese authorities following their rare escape to Japan by sea. They expressed wish to defect to Seoul on Sept. 13.

They flew from Fukuoka to South Korean Incheon International Airport around noon and will be housed at a state-run temporary home for North Korean defectors, the Seoul official said on the condition of anonymity.

South Korean officials have said their government will handle the issue from a humanitarian perspective and respect the defectors’ free will.

In a similar case, the Tokyo government sent a family of four North Korean defectors to South Korea in 2007, two weeks after they had landed at a prefecture on the northern tip of Honshu.

Despite harsh punishment for those caught fleeing the country, a growing number of North Koreans -- especially those in their 20s and 30s -- have escaped to the South, indicating the deepening food shortages and instability in the communist state.

By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldcorp.com)