S. Korea to Send Back DPRK Sailors

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 12, 2002

S. Korea to Send Back DPRK Sailors

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South Korea's Defense Ministry has decided to return 10 sailors to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) later Wednesday afternoon whose boat was broken in the sea and drifted into the South Korean territorial waters off the west coast last Saturday.

"We decided to send them back to the North side on humanitarian grounds as relevant negotiations with the DPRK through telephone conversations have been completed," spokesman of the Defense Ministry Hwang Young-soo was quoted by the national news agency Yonhap News as saying Wednesday.

"The decision to return them to the North follows the practices applied to the drifted DPRK vessels," the spokesman said. The ministry also consulted with the United Nations Command before making the decision, the spokesman added.

DPRK's 10 sailors will be delivered to the their country on the sea via a local maritime police vessel, he added.

Their 1,000-ton oil barge, Samgwang No. 5, crossed the alleged Northern Limit Line (NLL), four miles off Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea last Saturday after a rope between the barge with abroken engine and a towing vessel was cut.

The vessel then ran aground on the coast of South Korea's Daecheong Island.

On Dec. 6, South Korea sent back another 19 crew of two DPRK civilian boats which also crossed the disputable NLL divided waters between South Korea and the DPRK.

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