South Korea sends 6 rescued North Koreans back across sea border

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea sent six North Koreans back across the rivals’ sea border on Wednesday morning, months after they drifted south in wooden boats in March and May.

It came after months of failed efforts to contact North Korea to coordinate the repatriation of the six individuals, who officials say consistently expressed a desire to go back.

Despite the lack of communication, a North Korean patrol boat appeared at the handover point as the six individuals headed back aboard a repaired wooden boat, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

What would have been a routine event in years past was complicated by the North’s decision to cut off communications with the South in recent years.

North Koreans have occasionally drifted south in wooden boats before, sometimes accidentally and sometimes with the intention of defecting. In most previous cases, the two Koreas coordinated to send those who wished to turn back across the land border.

South Korea twice informed the North of its intention to repatriate the North Koreans on Wednesday through the U.S.-led United Nations Command, but received no response, the ministry said.

South Korean authorities are also investigating a North Korean man who crossed the heavily fortified land border between the Koreas on Friday and was taken into custody by South Korean troops. South Korean officials have not disclosed whether the man expressed a desire to settle in the South.

North Korea has effectively suspended almost all diplomacy and direct communication with South Korea following the collapse of its nuclear negotiations with Washington in 2019.

Relations between the Koreas have worsened since 2022 as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate his nuclear weapons and missile programs, while also sending troops and military equipment to support Russia’s war effort.

South Korea’s previous conservative government responded to the growing North Korean threat by expanding combined military exercises with the United States and Japan, which the North condemned as invasion rehearsals.

Border tensions have flared in recent months as the two Koreas traded Cold War-style psychological warfare, with North Korea sending thousands of trash-filled balloons toward the South and South Korea blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda through loudspeakers.

Since taking office last month, South Korea’s new liberal President Lee Jae Myung has made efforts to rebuild trust with North Korea, halting the frontline loudspeaker broadcasts and moving to ban activists from flying balloons carrying propaganda leaflets across the border.