SEOUL, July 9, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - South Korea on Wednesday repatriated six North Koreans who were rescued at sea earlier this year and requested to return home, Seoul's unification ministry said.

Four North Koreans were discovered in May by South Korean authorities in the East Sea -- known internationally as the Sea of Japan -- on a small wooden boat, after they had drifted into waters south of the de facto maritime border.

In early March, South Korea's military had also found another wooden boat carrying two North Koreans in the western Yellow Sea.

"The South Korean government repatriated six North Korean residents today via the East Sea," the unification ministry said in a statement.

"With the full consent of all North Korean individuals involved... all six were repatriated together."

The North Koreans are believed to have crossed the de facto border accidentally and had all expressed their wish to return to the North.

But they had been stuck in the South as Pyongyang -- which has declared Seoul an enemy state and cut communications -- did not respond to Seoul's outreach on the issue.

The two countries technically remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

A unification ministry official said Seoul and Pyongyang had communicated about the repatriation through the United Nations Command, which oversees the armistice.

It was carried out "in line with" Seoul's "humanitarian stance", according to the ministry.

"At the time of repatriation, a North Korean patrol boat appeared at the designated handover point," and the vessel carrying the North Koreans returned to the North "on its own", the ministry's statement said.

At 8:56 am, that boat crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, and the "repatriation was ultimately carried out smoothly and safely", the ministry said.

"During the repatriation process, the free will of the North Korean residents to return was confirmed on multiple occasions," the ministry said.

"They were safely protected in coordination with relevant authorities until the time of return."

South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, has vowed a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.

Lee has said he would seek talks with the North following a deep freeze under Yoon when relations plummeted to their worst level in years.

The Lee administration has halted the loudspeaker broadcasts along the border -- including K-pop tunes and international news -- that Seoul had begun last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang.

In turn, a day after, North Korea stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had been a major nuisance for South Korean residents in the area.