![Fishers work in the waters off Jeo Island, the northernmost fishing ground in the East Sea on April 17. [YONHAP]](https://www.koreadailyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/0605-fishing.jpg)
A North Korean wooden boat carrying four people drifted across the eastern Northern Limit Line (NLL) last month — the maritime border between the two Koreas — and was detected by South Korean military forces, authorities confirmed Thursday.
The passengers, who expressed no intention to defect, requested repatriation, saying they crossed the maritime border by mistake.
“Our military identified a small North Korean wooden vessel south of the NLL, about 100 kilometers [62 miles] east of Goseong, Gangwon, on the morning of May 27 and coordinated with the Coast Guard to respond,” a military official said on Thursday. “We handed the four individuals on board to the relevant authorities.”
“As an investigation is currently underway regarding these individuals, it is difficult to provide specific details at this time,” the Ministry of Unification said Thursday. They added that if North Korean residents wish to return to the North, “repatriation will be pursued promptly and safely on humanitarian grounds.”
This is not the first such incident this year.
The South’s military discovered a North Korean boat that had crossed the western NLL on March 7. The two North Koreans on board also requested repatriation.
The South Korean government attempted to initiate contact through the so-called “pink phone,” a direct line between the United Nations Command and the North Korean military, but Pyongyang has remained unresponsive, delaying the repatriation for nearly three months.
North Korea has refused all forms of inter-Korean communication since December 2023, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared South Korea a “hostile foreign state.”
The severed ties have blocked efforts to coordinate the return of North Korean citizens who unintentionally cross the maritime boundary.
However, with President Lee Jae-myung now in office and emphasizing renewed dialogue with Pyongyang, onlookers speculate that repatriation talks for the recent maritime cases may resume.
BY KIM JI-HYE [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]
