By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

Seven North Koreans, who were found drifting south of the West Sea border by the Coast Guard, Monday, want to go back home to the North, a government source said Tuesday.

But the Ministry of Unification in charge of inter-Korean affairs said nothing has yet been confirmed.

``I learned that all of them expressed their wish to return to the North during an inter-agency interrogation,'' the source said, adding that they were found adrift, while fishing.

Currently, the North Koreans are still being questioned, according to the source.

But ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters that the authorities have yet to confirm whether they really want to be sent back.

If it is confirmed they wish to return, the authorities will begin discussions with North Korea on repatriation.

A ministry official said that if their boat was in good enough condition, the two Koreas would discuss a date and an exact point at sea to tow it to.

Otherwise, they could walk over the inter-Korean border via the truce village of Panmunjeom, he said.

Late last month, a North Korean soldier was found in South Korean waters while drifting on a polystyrene-made raft but was soon sent back to the communist North as he wanted to return home.

On Oct. 1, however, 11 North Koreans defected to the South on a fishing boat and expressed their desire to settle here.

They entered Hanawon, the government-run resettlement center for North Korean defectors, and are currently undergoing several programs to prepare for a new chapter in their life in the capitalist South.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr