N. Korea set to release 6 from South

SEOUL, South Korea - In a surprise move that could help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea said Thursday that it would release six South Koreans it has been holding in detention, according to South Korean officials.

The Red Cross of North Korea told its South Korean counterpart that the six would be returned today at the border village of Panmunjom, the South Korean Unification Ministry said in a statement.

It was unclear who the detainees were. The ministry said that they were South Korean men ages 27 to 67, but did not know how long they had been in North Korea or how they had gotten there.

Pyongyang said in February 2010 that it was holding four South Koreans for illegal entry, but it never responded to Seoul’s request that they be identified and released. In June of this year, North Korea said it was holding “several” South Koreans for illegally entering the country, but it did not elaborate. Thousands of South Koreans, most of them fishermen, are said to have been taken to North Korea in the decades since the Korean War; more than 500 of them have not returned, though Pyongyang denies holding them against their will. South Korea welcomed the announcement Thursday.

“Although it is belated, we consider it a good thing that the North has decided to take this humanitarian measure,” the Unification Ministry’s statement said. “We will get custody of our six citizens, verify their identities and find out how and why they entered the North.”

In recent weeks, North Korea has alternated between harsh rhetoric and conciliatory gestures. In mid-September, streams of South Korean vehicles began crossing into North Korea again as operations resumed at a jointly run industrial park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/25/2013

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