A Unification Ministry official said five North Koreans who crossed the Northern Limit Line in the East Sea aboard a fishing boat last Saturday have all expressed wishes to defect to South Korea.
 
The official told reporters Thursday that a joint interrogation of the five North Koreans is under way by related agencies. He said the North Koreans are likely to have made preparations to escape from the North.
 
Last Saturday, South Korea’s coast guard authorities found the five North Koreans, four men and one woman, aboard a small boat in waters off Gangneung. Some in the group are said to be related.
 
The group is the second to escape the North via the East Sea this year.
 
On June third, a North Korean man in his 50s and his son in his 20s immediately expressed their intention to defect to the South when they were rescued from a drifting boat in the East Sea.
 
The government explained the father and son had gotten on the boat with the intention of fleeing their home country.
 
 

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