YONHAP NEWS

N. Korean defectors sailed far out to sea to avoid radar detection

SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- Eleven North Koreans who recently defected to South Korea aboard a small boat in the East Sea had detoured through international waters to avoid being detected by the North's radar, a government source said Sunday.

   The asylum seekers -- six women and five men -- came aboard a 3-ton wooden boat off the east coast on Friday and are now undergoing questioning by South Korea's Coast Guard. Nine are family members who expressed their desire to defect to the South, while the other two had yet to make their decisions, it said earlier.

   Investigators found that the North Koreans departed from the Kimchaek port on the North's east coast on the night of Sept. 27 and sailed as far as 250km southeast into international waters to avoid the North's radar, the official involved in the inquiry said, requesting anonymity.

   "The North Korean boat appears to have departed the port late at night under the guise of a fishing boat," the official said. "It sailed as far from the coast as possible not to be caught by the North Korean military radar and then turned toward (South Korean) waters."

   The North Koreans told South Korean investigators they had prepared for the defection for about one year, officials said earlier. The Coast Guard towed the boat to the port town of Jumunjin on the east coast.

   The alleged defections occurred at a sensitive time, when North Korea was reaching out to improve ties with South Korea's conservative government.

   More than 16,000 North Koreans have defected since the 1950-53 Korean War. Most of the defectors first flee to China and pass through Southeast Asia before arriving in South Korea. Defections by sea are rare.

   Twenty-one North Korean asylum seekers arrived by wooden boat in the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, in 2002. The defectors -- 14 males and seven females -- were members of three families.

   In 1987, North Korean doctor Kim Man-chol's family of 11 came to South Korea via Taiwan after reaching Japan in a small boat. The family of Yo Man-chol, a former North Korean People's Security Ministry captain, defected to the South via Hong Kong in 1994.

   hkim@yna.co.kr
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