N. Korea releases four detained S. Korean fishermen

(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks by captain of released fishing boat in 3rd para)
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- Four South Korean fishermen returned home Saturday
aboard their boat after being released from 30 days of detention in North Korea,
the latest move to ease tension on the divided Korean Peninsula.
North Korea freed the Southern fishing boat, the Yeonan-ho, at the eastern sea
border at 5 p.m., South Korea's maritime police said in a news release, clearing
a major roadblock in inter-Korean relations.
"I am glad to be back home," said Park Gwang-seon, the skipper of the fishing
boat. "We must say sorry to the people as well as the government for causing the
trouble."
After being released by North Korea, the fishing boat, sailing under its own
power, arrived at the eastern port city of Sokcho at 8:25 p.m., escorted by two
coast guard patrol boats, police officials said.
The crewmen were soon moved to a military base for debriefing.
Families were overjoyed.
"I was so worried, but now I'm very happy that my husband is back," said 49-year
old Lee Ah-na, the wife of captain Park Kwang-sun. She later met her husband at
an undisclosed place.
Maritime police said a preliminary medical checkup showed that despite the long
hardship, the fishermen were relatively in good health.
The fishermen were seized July 30 after their boat strayed into North Korean
waters after its satellite navigation system malfunctioned, according to an
earlier police announcement.
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 on Saturday.
The release was the latest in a string of North Korea's conciliatory gestures in
recent months. Pyongyang sent a high-level delegation to Seoul last week to mourn
the late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung who died of pneumonia.
The North's communist leadership is known to have high respects for the late
South Korean president who actively pushed cross-border rapprochement while in
office in 1998-2003 under his trademark "sunshine" policy.
The late South Korean president held the first-ever inter-Korean summit with the
North's top leader, Kim Jong-il, in 2000 that helped drastically ease tension on
the Peninsula. That meeting helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize that year.
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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