South Korea on Wednesday sent back six North Korean fishermen who were found drifting in two damaged boats off its east coast last weekend, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

The repatriation took place in the morning near the eastern Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border between the two Koreas, when the sailors aboard a boat were escorted by a North Korean vessel, according to spokesman Lee Duk Haeng.

South Korea arranged the repatriation after confirming the sailors' desire to return home. It notified the North through a channel at the United Nations Military Armistice Commission and also via loudspeakers at the truce village of Panmunjeom, the spokesman said. The commission supervises the Korean Armistice Agreement.

Military communication hotlines at Panmunjeom remain cut off after North Korea severed direct communications with the South in February 2016. The move followed Seoul's decision to suspend operations of a jointly-run industrial complex in protest against Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test and a subsequent long-range ballistic missile test.