North Korean refused to comment whether it would release a South Korean fishing boat and crew, despite its highly publicised release of two US reporters to former president Bill Clinton. According to Seoul’s foreign ministry Clinton appealed for the release of the four fishermen and another South Korean detainee during his talks in Pyongyang on Tuesday with leader Kim Jong-Il and other officials.
North Korea said that the probe is not finished yet. South Korea says the 29-ton squid fishing boat Yeonan drifted into the North’s east coast waters a week ago due to a malfunctioning navigation system. But the North said the boat had “illegally intruded” into its territorial waters.
Unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-Sung said South Korea would step up efforts to secure the release of its citizens held in the North. It is told that since March North Korea has detained 30 detained a South Korean worker at the Seoul-funded Kaesong estate, accusing him of insulting its system and of urging a North Korean worker to defect.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict but have sometimes returned each other’s craft in the past. Two South Korean trawlers strayed into the North’s waters in April 2005 and December 2006 and were returned after five days and 18 days respectively.
