South Korea has repatriated six North Korean fishermen who were rescued earlier this year after drifting across the maritime border separating the two countries.

Seoul's Ministry of Unification said the men had repeatedly expressed the desire to go back to North Korea, news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday.

North Korean fishermen returned with 'full consent'

"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."

Four of the North Korean fishermen were rescued in May after their boat drifted into the South Korean side of the East Sea.

The other two men were rescued from the Yellow Sea under similar circumstances in March.

Yonhap reported that the men were all placed on board a wooden boat which carried them back to North Korean waters.

Some have questioned whether the men really wanted to return to the North.

The Korea Times cited activist Peter Jung of the Seoul-based NGO, Justice for North Korea, as saying that the fishermen's wishes should have been verified "under the presence of the UN Refugee Agency or other UN agencies in Seoul."

"It is difficult to believe all six of them want to return to North Korea," Jung said.

North Korean defections to the South

Tens of thousands have fled North Korea to the South since the peninsula was divided in the 1950s.

A few days ago a North Korean civilian defected across the heavily mined land border into South Korea with the help of the South's military in a 20-hour operation.

Crossings directly through the 248-kilometer (155-mile) long, 4-kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) are considered extremely rare.

The two countries are still officially at war since a conflict in the 1950s, as the conflict ended in an armistice, but not a peace treaty.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, has adopted a less hawkish approach than his predecessor and has said he would seek dialogue with Pyongyang.

Lee ordered the discontinuation of the loudspeakers to "promote peace on the Korean Peninsula."

Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher