DPRK to return ROK boat and its crew held over illegal fishing

Pyongyang - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Monday it will release an ROK fishing boat and its seven crew members seized last month for alleged illegal fishing, in an apparently conciliatory gesture after months of high tensions.

The ROK's Red Cross was notified earlier in the day by its DPRK counterpart that seven crew members and the seized boat Daeseung 55 will be returned to ROK on Tuesday across the east coast sea border, Seoul's Unification Ministry said.

The release will be made "from the compatriotic and humanitarian points of view," DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.