Seoul, August 11: North Korea will free a South Korean worker on Tuesday after detaining him for nearly five months for allegedly insulting the country’s rulers, South Korean broadcaster YTN said, quoting informed sources.
The release could ease tension on the Korean peninsula that have risen following the North’s May 25 nuclear test and threats to attack the South while easing concern among investors about a rupture in ties leading to chaos.
A South Korean Unification Ministry official would not comment on the YTN report.
Other South Korean media also said the man identified by his family name Yoo and who worked for Hyundai was expected to be released soon but did not offer as many specific details as YTN, a cable news broadcaster.
Hyun Jeong-eun, the chairwoman of the massive Hyundai Group which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in projects in North Korea, went to Pyongyang on Monday in an attempt to win Yoo’s release.
The visit came on the heels of former U.S. President Bill Clinton going to Pyongyang last week where he met leader Kim Jong-il and secured the freedom of two U.S. journalists who had been held by the reclusive North since March for suspected illegal entry.
Yoo has been held since late March at a joint factory park located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. About 100 South Korean firms use cheap North Korean labour and land to make goods at the park.
The North’s propaganda machine will portray the Clinton and Hyun trip as leaders paying tribute to Kim, analysts said.
This will help erase doubts about his grip on power after the 67-year-old Kim was suspected of suffering a stroke last year while helping him press forward with his succession plans.
Repairing ties with Hyundai could also help bolster the North’s state coffers, which have been hit by U.N. sanctions for its nuclear test as well as a cut in aid from the South, which once sent handouts equal in value to about 5 percent of the North’s yearly economy.
Hyundai’s Hyun said she wants to restart a joint mountain resort in North Korea visited by more than 1 million South Koreans that was shut last year after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier after wandering into a military area.
North Korea, which makes tens of millions of dollars from the Kaesong factory park, used to receive a steady stream of cash from the Kumgang resort operated by a Hyundai affiliate.
–Agencies