A group of 22 North Koreans who had been returned home after their boats drifted into South Korean waters were all immediately executed by North Korean authorities, a source here said Sunday.

According to the ROK Navy and National Intelligence Service, two fishing boats carrying the 22 North Koreans, including 14 women and three teenagers, drifted into the western waters off South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island on Feb. 8.

During investigation, the North Koreans expressed their desire to return to the North, so they were sent back via an overland route the next night, the National Intelligence Service said in a press release on Saturday.


The North Koreans were residents of Kangnyeong County, North Korea's southern coastal province of South Hwanghae, who went to sea to collect clams and oysters without authorization from the North Korean maritime agency, the intelligence service said.

The report of their return by South Korean authorities came after the mass circulation Chosun Ilbo broke the report in its weekend edition.

The Chosun Ilbo was skeptical for a number of reasons — the seas were quiet on Feb 8, and the boats reportedly contained a large number of women and children. Even if the government’s explanation was true, it meant the North Koreans were out at dawn catching clams the day after Lunar New Year (even in the North, it’s a three-day holiday), and North Koreans don’t usually catch clams in winter; they dig up short-neck clams, which are exported to places like, well, South Korea through China. A North Korean economy expert pointed out that North Korean grain production is believed to have fallen by 20% last year due to floods. If the North Koreans were out catching clams rather than digging export-valuable short-neck clams, it’s evidence that the North is in dire straits.

A source well-versed in North Korea told Yonhap News Agency, however, that the drifters were all executed immediately after returning home early last week. The provincial branch of North Korea's National Security Agency shot and killed them secretly, the source said.

Of the group, 16 were extended family members and eight others were their neighbors, according to the South Korean intelligence agency.

"A rumor spread in South Hwanghae Province that (the security agency) secretly executed the 22 people immediately after they were returned," the source said.

"People in the province are shocked by the fact that all of the 22 people were shot and killed with no exception, such as being sent to a prison camp," the source said.

South Korean intelligence officials, contacted by Yonhap News Agency, said they were not aware of the rumored execution and would try to verify it.

South Korean intelligence acknowledged there is a possibility that the returnees were executed because of their unauthorized fishing.

"I'm not aware of whether they were executed or not, but that's possible because they went fishing with no authorization from the North Korean maritime authorities," a government official said, requesting anonymity.

Given the large number of North Koreans spotted aboard, suspicions had been raised that they were seeking asylum but forced to go back. The intelligence authorities, however, denied speculation that it was a defection attempt.

"We found they were swept by currents into South Korean waters as they were going to gather clams," an intelligence official said on Saturday requesting anonymity. "Since they wanted to return home, we sent them back using an overland route that evening." Officials cited South Korean policy to accept all North Korean defectors. Four found asylum after their wooden vessel drifted onto Yeonpyeong Island in May last year, following the defection of five North Koreans drifting on a small vessel in 2006. North Korean fishermen often stray into southern waters because of bad weather or engine problems.

source-asianoffbeat