Twenty-one North Korean asylum seekers have been taken to a safe house in South Korea for debriefing by security agents after their dramatic two-day escape by fishing-boat.

We prepared for this for a long time... My lifetime dream was to see my hometown again before I die

Defector Soon Jong-sik

Officials in Seoul say this is the first direct maritime defection in five years between the two states, which remain technically at war and whose land border is one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers.

The 11 adults and 10 children were found on a fishing boat in South Korean waters on Sunday, authorities said.

The defectors - who say they are members of three families - were escorted by intelligence agents to the South Korean port of Incheon.

The asylum seekers said they left home before dawn on Saturday

They said they had left Shinuiju, a small fishing village near North Korea's border with China, before dawn on Saturday.

They travelled on a 20-tonne fishing boat, with rice and cooking equipment on board for the 38-hour voyage.

The boat sailed some distance off North Korea's coast to avoid detection before slipping into the South's territorial waters, the Reuters news agency reported.

The oldest member of the group, Soon Jong-sik, 70, who claimed to have been born in the South, thanked South Korea for the warm welcome.

"We prepared for this for a long time... My lifetime dream was to see my hometown again before I die," he said.

South Korean newspapers reported that the group had left North Korea because of the threat of starvation.

Escape bids

The latest defection could harm relations between the North and the South, which warmed last week with new agreements on cross-border co-operation, correspondents say.

South Korea's opposition Grand National Party welcomed the defection, but warned that it might lead to other escape attempts by boat.

"The government must take measures to prepare for mass defection from the North," the party said in a statement.

About 600 North Koreans have been granted asylum by the South this year.

Aid agencies say that as many as 300,000 North Koreans are thought to be living in China, although China does not recognise them as refugees and tends to send them back to North Korea.