Eleven N.K. defectors arrive in Seoul

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Friday that 11 North Korean defectors including Choi Il-Sung (assumed name), 57, had arrived in Seoul via a third country and that the NIS was probing their exact identities and motives for their defection.

The North Koreans, who had defected from the North owing to severe food shortages, were factory and mine workers, students, business firm employees and an official of the Kim Il-Sung History Preservation Hall, the NIS disclosed.

Of the defectors, there are two households with seven members, while a miner called Choi has a family of five including his wife and three children.

With their arrival here, the number of North Korean defectors had reached 123 since Jan. 1st, the NIS noted.

[Yonhap]