A boat carrying 21 North Koreans who have fled their famine-stricken homeland was rescued Sunday in the Yellow Sea by a South Korean patrol boat.
The 20-tonne boat was spotted sailing into South Korean territory off the western island of Tocheok at 10.30 a.m. Irish time, a maritime police spokesman said.
"The boat being towed by our patrol boat is to arrive in the western port of Incheon tommorow morning," he said.
The defectors, including 10 children, allegedly left a port in Sonchon county near the border between North Korea and China early yesterday, he said.
A growing number of North Koreans are fleeing across the border to China hoping to get to South Korea.
So far this year, some 600 North Koreans have arrived in the South, compared to 583 in all of 2001 and 148 in 1999, according to South Korean intelligence authorities.