SEOUL – A North Korean crossed the tense Yellow Sea border by boat on Saturday in an apparent defection to South Korea. Yonhap news agency said the man arrived on the frontline island of Baengnyeong in the morning after drifting at sea on a unpowered barge.
The agency quoted island residents as saying the 200-ton barge is believed to be a sand carrier. A joint team of police and military officials was to interrogate the man. Baengnyeong and four other islands near the disputed border have been on high alert since the North shelled one of them, Yeonpyeong, last month.
The attack killed four people including civilians. North Koreans occasionally arrive by boat after fleeing their impoverished country. Others cross the border by accident and are allowed to return home if they wish. More than 20,000 North Koreans have arrived in the South since the end of the 1950-53 war.
