Seoul - South Korea on Sunday refused calls by the North to repatriate eleven North Koreans who fled to the South by crossing the countries' sea border. The South Korean Reunification Ministry said the 11 refugees had made known their wish to remain in South Korea, and Seoul had no intention of deporting them.
"We cannot take a measure against their free will," a Reunification Ministry spokeswoman said. North Korea made the request for repatriation on Friday.
The group, which included nine members of one family, arrived Thursday night in a motorboat in the port of Jumunjin on South Korea's north-east coast and asked for asylum, the public broadcaster KBS reported, citing government officials in Seoul.
The family said they had planned the flight for a year.
Further details of their flight over the Sea of Japan, also called the East Sea, were not released.
Most North Koreans defecting from their Stalinist homeland flee over the border with China. Most of them then try to reach South Korea.
Escapes via the Korean sea border, however, are rare because it is heavily patrolled.
More than 16,000 North Koreans have settled in the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to official data. The migration has increased in recent years as living conditions in insular, impoverished North Korea have worsened.
