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Boat carrying repatriated North Koreans safely docks at port

Published: 10 Jul. 2025, 15:56

A wooden boat carrying North Koreans moves northward in the East Sea on July 9 in this photo provided by the Unification Ministry. [MINISTRY OF UNIFICATION]

A wooden boat carrying six North Koreans has safely docked at a North Korean port, a South Korean government official said Thursday, a day after they were repatriated across the sea border following their rescue in the South.

Boarding the wooden boat they had been rescued in by South Korean authorities, the six North Korean fishers were sent back home the previous day across the Northern Limit Line in the East Sea.

Four of them had drifted into the southern side of the East Sea and were rescued in May, while the other two were rescued in March in the Yellow Sea in a similar incident. All of them wished to go back to North Korea.

The repatriated ship safely reached the shore along North Korea's east coast the previous day, an official at South Korea's Unification Ministry said, without specifying the port where it docked.

A large North Korean vessel was used to tow the wooden boat to the port, ministry officials said.

As of Thursday morning, North Korea had shown no response to the repatriation.

Yonhap