South Korea repatriates six North Koreans picked up at sea
North Koreans’ repatriation comes as South Korea’s newly-elected president is working to enhance inter-Korean ties.
South Korea has repatriated six North Koreans who had been rescued at sea earlier this 12 months after their vessels drifted throughout the de facto maritime border, Seoul’s Unification Ministry has mentioned.
The North Koreans, who had been picked up by South Korean authorities in separate vessels in March and Could, had been transported throughout the Northern Restrict Line on Wednesday morning with their “full consent” and after that they had repeatedly expressed their want to return dwelling, the ministry mentioned.
The repatriation was efficiently accomplished with the cooperation of North Korean authorities regardless of repeated failed makes an attempt by Seoul to contact Pyongyang about their return, based on the ministry.
The event comes as South Korea’s newly-elected president, Lee Jae-myung, is working to bolster ties between the 2 Koreas, which stay in a technical state of struggle after hostilities within the 1950-1953 Korean Conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Talking at a information convention to mark his first month in workplace final week, Lee mentioned that Seoul ought to work to enhance relations in coordination with its ally, the US, and that chopping off dialogue fully can be a “silly act”.
Final month, South Korea’s army turned off loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korea propaganda throughout the inter-Korean border in one of many Lee administration’s first steps in the direction of rapprochement.
South Korea’s Ministry of Nationwide Defence on the time mentioned the transfer would assist “to revive belief in inter-Korean relations” and “promote peace on the Korean Peninsula”.
