Two North Koreans took to the sea and swam to the South Korea-held island of Gyodongdo, announcing their intents to defect once they came on shore. The by-sea border run took place on August 14, according to the Unification Ministry in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

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"The marines found them coming across the border, and both expressed a desire to defect. They are believed to be a father and a son," a spokeswoman said. "They are being interrogated as part of a normal process for defectors," 

The pair, one presumed to be in his 20s and the other in his 50s, swam across the Yellow Sea border along the Korean Peninsula's western seaboard to Gyodongdo at around 4:00 am (1900 GMT Wednesday), and were spotted by local military. The region is studded with islands belonging to both Koreas.

As an island along the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Gyodongdo is heavily fortified. It rises about 1.6 miles from the North Korean shoreline.

Sea defections are rare. Last month, a North Korean man sailed across the border in a boat, but the lack of cover means maritime crossings can be easily discovered. Even direct land crossings are uncommon; people defecting from the North are targeted by their homeland as well as by soldiers stationed in the South. South Korean military shot dead a defector in mid-crossing last year.

Most North Korean defectors do so through a third nation, usually China. Following North Korea's nuclear beligerence in 2013, China tightened its borders with its ally. The North Korean side of the river is already heavily monitored for defectors.

The Korean DMZ is among the most heavily fortified and frequently monitored borders on the planet. In reality the most recent battle front in the Korean War, the US-backed south and China/USSR-backed north signed an armistice in 1953, but an actual peace was never declared. One of modern history's longest running frozen conflicts, the two Koreas remain in a state of war and border incidents continue to the present.