A top South Korean industrialist Friday extended her stay in North Korea after securing the release of a detained employee, fuelling speculation she will meet leader Kim Jong-Il.
Engineer Yu Seong-Jin returned home Thursday evening after more than four months in captivity, raising hopes of better cross-border relations after 18 months of bitter hostility from the communist state.
Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-Eun had travelled to the North Monday to seek Yu's release, days after former president Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang to meet Kim and win a pardon for two American journalists.
She had twice extended her stay, apparently in hopes of also being granted a meeting with Kim. A Hyundai spokesman said Friday she would now delay her return until Saturday.
Hyundai pioneered joint business projects with the North through its subsidiary Hyundai Asan.
The company and the impoverished sanctions-hit North have each lost tens of millions of dollars since tourist trips to the communist state shut down amid frosty political relations.
Officials say Hyun's visit is partly aimed at restarting tours to the Mount Kumgang resort. Seoul suspended these after North Korean soldiers in July 2008 shot dead a South Korean housewife who strayed into a military zone.
Inter-Korean relations have been icy since a conservative government took office in Seoul in February 2008 and took a tougher line on cross-border relations.
Pyongyang's official media regularly labels President Lee Myung-Bak a "traitor", a US sycophant and a warmonger.
International tensions have also risen this year following the North's latest nuclear and missile tests and a US-led drive for tougher sanctions.
Philip Goldberg, the US official tasked with enforcing the sanctions, will start another Asian tour next week to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.
Washington termed Clinton's visit last week as purely a humanitarian mission but said North Korean officials had signalled to him that they want better relations.
The North realises it must ease tensions with the South as a prelude, analysts say.
"The release (of the engineer) will be a turning point in frozen ties between the two Koreas," Dongguk University professor Koh Yu-Hwan told AFP.
"It reflects Pyongyang's belief it cannot improve relations with Washington without easing cross-border tensions.
"North Korea also badly needs economic help from South Korea to overcome economic difficulties and food shortages, which have worsened this year due to international sanctions and regional tensions."
Seoul is also trying to win the release of four fishermen whose boat sailed across the border on July 30 due to a faulty navigation system.
The presidential office has welcomed the release of the engineer but said policy towards its neighbour would not change.
Yu was detained on March 30 at the Seoul-funded joint industrial estate in the North's border town of Kaesong, where he worked.
The North had held Yu incommunicado since then, accusing him of insulting its political system and urging a northern estate worker to defect.
"I'm very happy to return home safely," the 44-year-old told a crowd of reporters at the border Thursday evening.
Seoul said no payment was made in return for the release.
The Kaesong estate is the last joint business project still operating. Its future has become increasingly clouded since Pyongyang demanded huge extra wage and rent payments from Seoul and detained the engineer.
Some 40,000 North Koreans work for 105 South Korean companies at Kaesong, which was developed mainly by Hyundai.
Source: AFP Global Edition
