South Korea repatriated six North Korean nationals on Wednesday in the first such transfer under President Lee Jae-myung, using a maritime route near the inter-Korean border amid a continued freeze in direct communication between the two Koreas.

“The government repatriated six North Korean nationals today via the East Sea (Sea of Japan), who had been rescued in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) in March and in the East Sea in May,” the Ministry of Unification confirmed to NK News on Wednesday. 

According to the ministry, the North Koreans returned aboard the same wooden boat on which two had been rescued