The Red Cross Society of North Korea has reiterated its demand for all 31 of its nationals to be returned.

A wooden fishing vessel carrying 31 North Koreans crossed the inter-Korean maritime border, the Northern Limit Line, in February. Four of them have expressed wishes to defect.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Friday carried a statement by the Red Cross organization urging the South to return the North Koreans to their homeland. It claimed that the North Koreans are being held in the South against their will, and that the North Koreans had not intended to cross the border into South Korea.

The statement also claimed that the South pressed the North Koreans to defect to the South through deception and threats. It stressed that the repatriation is a grave issue affecting inter-Korean relations, not just a humanitarian one.

The message warned that if South Korea does not answer its “just demand,” the North would hold South Korea fully accountable for the consequences.