(3rd LD) N. Korea releases four detained S. Korean fishermen
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, the latest move to ease tension on the divided Korean Peninsula.
North Korea set free 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, in a move that cleared a major roadblock in inter-Korean relations.
"While the release was delayed, we feel relieved that they are returning home safely," a South Korean government official, requesting that he remain anonymous.
Escorted by two maritime police patrol boats, the fishing boat, sailing under its own power, was expected to arrive at the eastern port city of Sokcho after more than three hours due to the high sea waves, police said.
Maritime police said the four fishermen received a preliminary medical checkup on the way but did not disclose their health condition.
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 repsects for the late South Korean president who actively pushed cross-border rapprochemnet while in office in 1998-2003 under his trademark "sunshine" poliy.
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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