Two South Koreans who were detained in North Korea last month returned home on Wednesday.
 
The Unification Ministry in Seoul said a 59-year-old man, surnamed Lee, and his 51-year-old wife, identified with the last name Jin, were sent back to the South via the truce village of Panmunjeom.
 
The couple went missing on May 11 during their trip to China in area bordering North Korea. The North had detained the couple on suspicions of illegal entrance.  
 
The government plans to look into how they ended up in the North after they undergo medical examinations.
 
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said that though the couple’s entrance demanded a legal response, the North decided to send them back to the South on humanitarian grounds.
 
The report also claimed that the South Koreans had admitted that they had intentionally committed a crime and had pleaded to be forgiven.
 
The North, however, has refused to respond to the South’s calls for the release and repatriation of four South Koreans held in the North, including three who were arrested in Pyongyang in April and a missionary who has been detained since October 2013.