4 S. Korean fishermen detained in N. Korea released

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in 2-4 paras)
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- Four South Korean fishermen were headed home Saturday
aboard their boat after being released from 30 days of detention in North Korea,
South Korean maritime police said.
North Korea set free the southern fishing boat, the Yeonan-ho, at the eastern sea
border at 5 p.m. as it had promised a day earlier, South Korea's maritime police
said in a news release.
The boat, sailing under its own power, was expected to arrive at South Korea's
eastern port city of Sokcho about three hours later, escorted by a maritime
police patrol boat, they said.
The four fishermen received a preliminary medical checkup on the way, police
officials said. Their health condition was not immediately known, however.
The fishermen were seized July 30 after their boat accidentally strayed into
North Korean waters as its satellite navigation system malfunctioned.
North Korea had insisted that the boat illegally intruded into its territorial
waters, but the communist state informed South Korea Friday of its decision to
set it free.
The release marks the latest in a string of North Korea's conciliatory gestures
this month. Pyongyang sent a surprise delegation last week to the funeral of the
late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first inter-Korean
summit with Kim Jong-il in 2000.
North Korea also released a detained South Korean worker who was stationed in an
inter-Korean industrial estate, lifted cross-border traffic restrictions and
restored a cross-border hotline.
South and North Korea remain technically in a state of war since the 1950-53
Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
ygkim@yna.co.kr
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