Some 200 North Korean asylum-seekers have arrived in Seoul aboard a chartered flight from an undisclosed Southeast Asian country.

The Foreign Ministry said a second group of North Koreans, also made up of around 200 defectors, is due to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday.

The two-day arrival comprises the largest single group of North Korean defectors to be allowed into South Korea since the two Koreas were divided in the 1940s. The exact number of defectors is yet unclear, but according to earlier reports, the total number of the group is estimated to be between 400 and 460.

Diplomatic sources said that some of the defectors have been in hiding for more than six months in an Asian country and more than 60 percent of those are women and children.

Earlier on Monday, a government official said that Seoul will not make public details of their arrival upon the request of the third country involved and in consideration of diplomatic circumstances and inter-Korean relations.

The official only said that the defectors will be sent to Hanawon, a state-run resettlement center for North Korean refugees, after undergoing a one-month group questioning on their reasons for fleeing the communist North.