North Korea has requested that South Korea return 27 North Koreans who drifted to the South aboard a wooden vessel last month in the Yellow Sea.

The North Korean Red Cross Society made the request in a message sent on Tuesday morning, saying that the decision was made in consideration of the families who are waiting for the return of their loved ones.

Pyongyang has claimed that the North Koreans are being "detained" by the South.

The South Korean Red Cross has notified the North of its willingness to return the North Koreans by sea as requested by the North from a humanitarian standpoint.

The 27 North Koreans are part of a group of 31 who crossed the maritime border into South Korean waters. Four of them have expressed their intentions to stay in the South.