Two North Korean families defect across the NLL by boat

Two North Korea families that included children entered the South by sailing across the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea earlier this month, South Korean military authorities revealed Thursday.

A South Korean Navy vessel patrols the area of the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea in September 2020. The shoreline of North Korea's Hwanghae Province is visible in the distance. [YONHAP]

Two North Korean families that included children entered the South by sailing across the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea earlier this month, South Korean military authorities revealed Thursday.

Their passage marks the first time in six years that North Koreans have taken a boat to flee the North across the heavily patrolled Northern Limit Line (NLL).

According to a South Korean military official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity, the North Korean boat’s approach toward the NLL was detected by the military’s surveillance systems on the evening of May 6.

The military then deployed its maritime forces to intercept the boat as it was headed to Yeonpyeong Island after crossing the NLL, the official said.

South Korean soldiers boarded the boat to conduct an inspection of those on board and confirmed the passengers’ intent to defect to the South, according to the official.

After checking their identities, the South Korean military transported the boat’s passengers to a military base in Seoul on the morning of May 7.

While military authorities did not reveal the exact number of people who defected in the incident, they said the number did not exceed 10.

Two families were aboard the boat, including an unknown number of young children, according to the source that spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo.

The defectors are currently undergoing joint questioning by South Korean investigators from the military and the National Intelligence Service in an undisclosed location in Seoul, the source said.

Their motives for defection have not yet been disclosed but could be tied to rising food insecurity and economic hardship in the North.

The last time North Koreans fled to the South via boat across the NLL was in July 2017.

That successful defection involved four North Korean men and one woman.

But not all maritime border crossings are intentional, with North Korean fishing boats sometimes drifting into the South after experiencing engine trouble or running out of fuel.

South Korea returns those on board to the North unless they have expressed a desire to defect.

One notable exception is the case of two North Korean fishermen who were forcibly repatriated in November 2019 after coming under suspicion of murdering 16 fellow crewmembers before fleeing across the East Sea into the South.

Several high-ranking former officials who served in the Moon Jae-in administration at the time of the repatriation incident have been indicted on charges of abusing their authority and obstructing a fair and impartial investigation into the allegations against the fishermen.

The most recent group’s escape from the North comes at a time when far fewer North Koreans are successfully reaching the South.

According to figures published by the Unification Ministry, the annual number of North Korean defectors entering the South hovered around 1,000 before plummeting to 229 in 2020, 63 in 2021 and 67 in 2022.

The drastic fall in defection figures has been attributed to Pyongyang’s decision to seal its borders to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from neighboring China, where the first outbreaks of the virus were detected.

Before the pandemic, most North Koreans fleeing their homeland escaped first to China before continuing on to another country where they could present themselves at South Korean diplomatic missions to apply for asylum.

China does not recognize North Korean defectors as refugees, but rather as economic migrants and deports them back to the North if they are caught.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]