North Korea yesterday released a South Korean tourist accused of attempting to incite defection, as the two countries prepared to resume talks in Beijing aimed at reuniting separated Korean families.
Pyongyang released 36-year-old Min Young-Mi, after President Kim Dae-Jung of South Korea threatened to suspend cruise tours crucial to the economy of the communist state. Mrs Min was on a cruise tour last week when she was detained.
North Korea also agreed to resume high-level talks following warnings that a further shipment of fertiliser aid for the state would be halted unless it kept its promise to co-operate in reuniting families separated since the Korean War.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-'53 Korean War, which left the two Koreas still technically at war, as it ended with the signing of an armistice. A permanent peace treaty was never signed.
A Unification Ministry spokesman in Seoul said yesterday that Mrs Min was handed over to tour organisers at the port of Changjon, near Mount Kumgang. She arrived in the eastern port of Sokcho on a special high-speed boat owned by Hyundai, the tour operators who helped to negotiate her release.
She was met by family members and was visited by Hyundai officials and a medical team before she disembarked and was then taken to a Seoul hospital.
North Korea detained Mrs Min last Sunday, accusing her of trying to entice a state guide to defect to capitalist South Korea.
According to Pyongyang's official Central News Agency Mrs Min admitted that she had "preached defection" during her Mount Kumgang tour and begged for "lenient forgiveness for her criminal act".
"Her crime should have been judged according to the DPRK (North Korea) law, but the KAPPC (Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee) decided to send her back to South Korea," it said. "This represents our magnanimous compatriotic measure. It is also thanks to sincere efforts of the Hyundai side that Min can return home."
The Hyundai cruises are operated to the North's major tourist attraction of Mount Kumgang. North Korea has earned more than $150 million in much-needed foreign currency since they were launched last November.
In Washington yesterday the State Department said that North Korea has detained a US citizen since June 17th for allegedly breaking laws in that state.
The Pyongyang government had confirmed to Swedish diplomats, who represent US interests in North Korea, that they detained a US national on June 17th in the Rajin Sombong special economic zone, it said in a statement. "The American is being investigated for alleged violations of law."