Alleged three citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Friday defected to South Korea respectively via inter-Korean sea and land border.

Two of the three people aboard a small vessel crossed the inter- Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea Friday morning to defect to South Korea, South Korean Yonhap News Agency quoted South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) as reporting.

The DPRK ship, named Nampo, was founded at 8:24 a.m. Friday ( 2324 GMT Thursday), while sailing near the inter-Korean sea border off the peninsula's west coast, the JCS said.

After the two people on board, one male and one female, expressed their hope of defecting to South Korea, a South Korean navy boat towed their vessel to South Korean Baekryong Island located near the inter-Korean sea border, JCS officials said.

Moreover, a self-claimed DPRK male citizen was caught in Cheolwon, a town in South Korea's Gangwon Province close to the inter-Korean land border on Friday.

The man in his early 20s was stopped when found hiding in a lorry parked at a public park in Cheolwon, less than 100 kilometers north to Seoul, the JCS said in a statement.

Military investigators, joined by police officers, were questioning the man suspected of defecting across the tense inter- Korean border, the statement said.

Since the end of Korean War (1950-1953), people of South Korea and the DPRK can not freely access to the other side.

Source: Xinhua