[Yonhap Photo]
North Korea belatedly acknowledged the seizure of a South Korean boat for illegal fishing in its territorial waters six days ago at the height of cross-border tensions ran over a major sea exercise by South Korean and U.S. warships led by an American aircraft carrier strike group.
The boat, "391 Hungjin", was captured on October 21 after it intruded into North Korean waters off the east coast, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
However, Pyongyang decided to repatriate the boat and its crew "from the humanitarian point of view" because they admitted their wrongdoing and repeatedly apologized, asking for "leniency", KCNA said.
They will be turned over to South Korean authorities at "designated waters" off the east coast at 5:30 pm (0830 GMT) on Friday, it said. The two Koreas have a tacit agreement to repatriate fishing boats drifting or accidentally sailing into their own waters across the sea border.
The South's unification ministry said the 39-ton boat with seven South Korean and three Vietnamese sailors aboard lost contact after it left a port on the eastern island of Ulleung to catch blowfish, sparking a search by coastguard vessels. At that time, US and South Korean warships, submarines and jet fighters were involved in a joint sea exercise.
In the border truce village of Panmunjom and other areas, the two Koreas have maintained liaison offices and hotlines for an exchange of messages and personnel, but all cross-border exchanges and contact remained cut off due to tensions caused by North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
