(2nd LD) Freed from North Korea, S. Korean worker returns home

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, UPDATES throughout with worker's arrival, four fishermen
still held in N.K. presidential spokesman quote, background)
By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean Hyundai worker returned home after
North Korea freed him from months of detention on Thursday in a reconciliatory
gesture made during a trip by the chairwoman of the conglomerate to the country.
Yu Seong-jin has been detained incommunicado since late March on accusations of
criticizing the North's political system. His health condition was not
immediately known.
The technician with Hyundai Asan Corp., the Hyundai Group's North Korea business
arm, crossed the military demarcation line at around 8:30 p.m., South Korea's
Unification Ministry said. He will be reunited later with his relatives at the
Inter-Korean Transit Office, a gateway from North Korea, it said.
North Korean officials handed him over to the Hyundai Asan chief, Cho Kun-shik,
at a joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong, where he had been taken
into custody, Seoul officials said. Cho brought him through the inter-Korean land
border.
It was not immediately known whether the charges against him had been cleared.
The two Koreas held three rounds of negotiations after his detention, but there
was no progress, as North Korea refused to discuss Yu's case. Instead, Pyongyang
demanded hefty hikes in wages and land fees from South Korean firms operating at
the joint park. Seoul rejected the demand.
In a conciliatory gesture, North Korea invited the chairwoman of the Hyundai
Group, Hyun Jung-eun, on Monday days after former U.S. President Bill Clinton
visited Pyongyang to win the release of two detained American journalists. Hyun
is still in North Korea after extending her trip twice, apparently seeking a
meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to discuss Hyunda's troubled
ventures jointly run with North Korea.
In his rural eastern hometown, Yu's aged, ailing parents were not yet fully
relieved, as they had yet to see their son. His company did not inform them of
the son's detention long after it occurred, worrying it would shock them and harm
their frail health.
"We want to see our son," his 75-year-old father said. "Thank you everyone who
worked so hard to help him return safely."
South Korea's presidential office welcomed Yu's release, but with a reserved
tone. It said Seoul's policy on Pyongyang will remain unchanged, amid speculation
President Lee Myung-bak may reciprocate with a reconciliatory offer to North
Korea on Liberation Day, which will be celebrated Thursday.
"It's late, but it's a good thing," Lee Dong-kwan, spokesman for President Lee
Myung-bak, told reporters. "The government will continue to maintain its policy
consistency toward North Korea."
South Korea is still concerned about four fishermen detained north of the border.
Their squid fishing boat, the Yeonan 800, was hauled into a North Korean port for
an investigation on July 30. In the latest inter-Korean maritime contact on
Thursday, North Korea repeated that "an investigation was underway," according to
Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.
The release of Yu is expected to remove a major roadblock in the Hyndai ventures,
as well as inter-Korean relations.
Hyundai invested US$1.2 billion won to open joint tourism and industrial ventures
in North Korea, but most of them have been suspended or scaled down as political
relations unraveled last year.
The Kaesong Industrial Council, which represents South Korean businesses
investing in Kaesong, welcomed Yu's release, hoping it will boost business
sentiment at the park. Yu's case has sparked security concerns at the park,
prompting some firms to consider withdrawing.
"We hope this incident will help thaw the frozen inter-Korean relations and boost
the Kaesong industrial park," the council said in a statement.
The joint park combining South Korean capital and technology with North Korean
labor was developed by Hyundai Asan and opened in late 2004. The venture now
hosts more than 100 South Korean small firms employing about 40,000 North
Koreans, producing clothing, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other
labor-intensive goods.