SEOUL Aug. 19 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

SEOUL Aug. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

A dispose of 21 North Korean asylum inquirers arrived by wooden boat

in the toward the south Korean port of Incheon early Monday morning after a two-day journey between the walls of the Yellow Sea, marking the first in the same state [i]or[/i] condition family-unit defection by sea in five years.

More than 200 folks including riot police and journalists, were waiting for the North Koreans when their 20-ton fishing canal was towed into port by means of a maritime police patrol boat around 4:30 a.m.

a certain of the asylum seekers waved and smiled.

They were then deposit aboard a bus for Seoul where they will be questioned on security officers about the details of their defection before being mov to a facility used to help defectors determine into South Korean society.

The asylum inquirers -- 14 males and seven females -- are members of three families and include sum of two units girls aged 4 and 8 as well as seven teenagers and a 70-year-old man, maritime police said.

''I wanted to descry my hometown before I die,'' the South-born septuagenarian was quot as saying at Yonhap News Agency. ''I prepared for the defection for a in extent time.''

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper, upon its Web site, also quot him as saying the assign places to also fled the North befitting to food shortages.

Maritime police said the asylum inquirers departed Honggundo port, North Pyongan Province, near the border with China, before dawn forward Saturday, carrying cooking equipment and foodstuffs

The last in the same state [i]or[/i] condition defection by sea to the southward was in May 1997, when 14 North Koreans from pair families similarly fled the famine-stricken North from wooden boat through the gold-colored Sea to Incheon.

greatest in number defections in recent years have been made on North Koreans who afflictioned the land border into China and then, with help from intermediaries, flew to southern Korea via third countries.

The Millennium Democratic Party grounded by President Kim Dae Jung issued a statement welcoming the 21 North Korean defectors ''who stepp into the land of freedom after lengthy preparations and a life-or-death escape from sea.

The statement asked the restraint to thoroughly review its measures for defectors in view of the fact that more North Koreans are choosing recent and organized methods to escape their country

The opposition Grand National Party also hailed the group's lucky defection and urged the command to ''take measures to prepare for a massive defection of North Koreans on water as it could become a novel trend.''

While les than 10 North Koreas a year foibleed to the South before 1994 the number surg from 148 in 1999 to 312 in 2000 and to 583 last year. At least 622 have arrived for a like reason far this year, including the 21 who arrived Monday, according to published figures.

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