South Korea's navy rescued a pair of North Korean soldiers from a small boat off the eastern Korean coast this weekend, but it was unclear if they had been planning to defect, a Defense Ministry official said Sunday. The three-ton wooden boat was found drifting off South Korea's eastern port of Sokcho near the maritime border with communist North Korea on Saturday night and the two soldiers were taken to a hospital, the official said, asking not to be identified as he wasn't authorized to speak to media. The official said the two were not in good condition, but would not elaborate and declined to give their names, the Associated Press reported.
