Boatpeople flee North Korea
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South Korea's defence ministry says 11 North Koreans have used a small boat to defect from the closed communist state, in the biggest defection by sea in several years.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports the 11 North Koreans sailed about 160 kilometres out to sea before heading south.
The three men, two boys and six women, arrived in the eastern coastal town of Jumunjin, where investigators are questioning them.
The defectors have told South Korean security officers they prepared their escape for a year.
Defections by sea are rare, with most North Korean fugitives preferring to cross the land border into China.
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