Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Four North Koreans defect to the South by boat

Four North Koreans defected to South Korea by sea this week. Yonhap, South Korea's national news agency, reported that the defectors were a husband and wife, their son and daughter-in-law.

Yonhap, which cited no sources in its report, said the four North Koreans were in a small wooden boat when a patrol boat from the South Korean Navy picked them up Tuesday night. Escapes from North Korea through the heavily guarded land and sea borders between the two Koreas are uncommon.

More than 14,000 people from the hunger-stricken North have defected to South Korea since1953, but most of the defectors have come through China.

[International Herald Tribune]

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