South Korea has repatriated one of the three North Koreans whose boat drifted into South Korean waters but will honor the requests of the two others to stay in the South, officials said.

The North, which had demanded that all three be returned, asked that it be able to interview the other two to confirm their desire to remain in the South.

“It’s necessary to meet with them and check whether their desire to defect is true,” the North said through their dialogue channel at Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border. Otherwise, Pyongyang said it would treat their presence in the