The Unification Ministry said Saturday the government has repatriated three North Korean sailors and the body of one deceased sailor after they were retrieved from East Sea by the local Coast Guard.

Their ship was found adrift in South Korean waters of the East Sea on Thursday and three of them were rescued by the authorities, the ministry said.

The Coast Guard also retrieved the body of the fourth sailor. Further details about what happened to the sailors and the boat were not known. 

The South had sent a letter to the North via the Korean Red Cross notifying it of the repatriation plan and the North accepted it, the ministry said. (Yonhap)