Asia-Pacific News
North Koreans who drifted into South's waters returned home
Dec 23, 2009, 4:40 GMT
Seoul - Seven North Koreans who strayed across the two Koreas' disputed Yellow Sea border in a small boat returned to North Korea Wednesday, a Unification Ministry official said in Seoul.
'We've sent them back home this morning after confirming their wish to return home,' the ministry spokesman said.
The seven were spotted by South Korean Coast Guard officers Monday after accidentally drifting across the maritime frontier off the west coast, said a spokesman for the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's main spy agency.
The incident came after North Korea on Monday declared 'a peacetime naval firing zone' at the disputed sea border and warned South Korean warships to steer clear of the area.
Despite the tensions, the government in Seoul promised Tuesday to send food and medicine to the North via South Korean churches or the World Health Organization to help alleviate food shortages in the impoverished Stalinist country.
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