The two North Koreans had expressed a desire to defect, but Seoul declined on the grounds that they were “heinous criminals.”
“Recently, South Korea has deported North Koreans who crossed over to the South because they had committed crimes,” Lim Tae-hoon, director of the Center for Military Human Rights Korea, said on a radio program, referring to the fishermen. “If North Korea is a normal nation, it should acknowledge the need for extradition.”
In response, the Unification Ministry said it would decide after a “comprehensive review.”