Accidental North Korean defectors want to go home but Pyongyang is ignoring their calls

North Korea has yet to respond to South Korea’s repeated requests to repatriate two of its nationals who drifted south across the maritime border near the western island of Eocheong in early March, despite the pair’s stated desire to return.

As of May 7, the two North Korean individuals have been in South Korea for 62 days — the longest stay ever recorded among North Koreans who entered the South unintentionally and asked to be sent back. Officials are raising concerns that Pyongyang’s silence may be a reflection of its declaration that it now considers the South an “enemy state.”

Multiple government sources said North Korea was informed of the incident and the pair’s intention to return via the United Nations Command’s (UNC) direct communication channel, known as the “pink phone,” but has provided no response regarding the repatriation process.

On March 7, two North Koreans conducting fishing activities near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea drifted south due to currents and were discovered by South Korea’s armed forces near Eocheong Island. The two repeatedly expressed their wish to return to the North during joint questioning by the South Korean military and intelligence agencies.

The South Korean government formally notified the North with assistance from the UNC, but Pyongyang has yet to reply. The prolonged silence marks a record for North Korean nationals who expressed a desire to return, surpassing the previous record of 51 days in 2011 when 31 North Koreans were repatriated by sea, with four electing to remain in the South.

According to the Ministry of Unification, most North Koreans who accidentally crossed into the South by sea have typically been returned within a week. During the Moon Jae-in administration from May 2017 to May 2022, the average time to repatriation was about 3.3 days.

In 2019, two North Korean fishermen who entered the South via the East Sea were returned after five days. The decision was controversial as it was made against their will amid allegations that they had committed murder onboard, drawing criticism for what was seen as forced repatriation.

The current case poses a legal gray area. Under the Act on the Protection and Settlement Support of Residents Escaping from North Korea, only individuals who seek protection and wish to settle in the South qualify for official status. The two in question, who have no such intention, fall outside this category.

They are also not considered “unconverted long-term prisoners” or ideological detainees, as their entry was unintentional and they are not suspected of espionage or illegal border crossing under the National Security Act.

The government has been providing stranded North Korean residents with basic food and shelter using the Unification Ministry’s budget on humanitarian grounds.

The two North Koreans are currently staying at a government-managed facility in the greater capital area. Officials say they initially refused to eat the food provided and declined to wash with South Korean water. They remain firm in their wish to return home and have reportedly become increasingly anxious.

Experts believe this anxiety is likely exacerbated by Pyongyang’s recent declaration of the South as a “hostile state” under North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s orders. The longer they remain in the South the greater the potential psychological toll.

The South Korean government is reportedly considering making a public statement or appeal to urge North Korea to receive its citizens, should the silence persist.

In the early days of the case, government officials in Seoul hoped that Pyongyang might simply be taking its time to decide. But as the silence has stretched past two months, concerns are growing that North Korea is deliberately refusing to take its nationals back.

“This is highly unusual, even by North Korea’s standards,” one government source said.

There are also fears that North Korea may argue the individuals have been “contaminated” by South Korean culture or persuasion efforts, using this as a reason to deny their return — a possibility informed by the North’s insular and tightly controlled systems.

North Korea has previously refused to retrieve the bodies of its citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic, when corpses were found drifting south from the Gunnam Dam. In such instances, the South processed the remains as unclaimed bodies under internal protocols.

Above all, analysts say the incident exposes the hypocrisy of North Korea’s self-professed values, such as its emphasis on leader Kim Jong-un’s supposed benevolence and the state’s duty to protect its people.

“This may be the first case where Pyongyang, after unilaterally declaring a severance of ties with the South, is now being forced to engage again,” said Oh Kyung-seop, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “North Korea might be holding back until it can develop a formal protocol for dealing with this kind of contact.”

BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO, LEE YU-JUNG   [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]