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, Reuters reported.
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 the release of the man identified by the family name of Yoo.
Yoo, a Hyundai worker, has been held since late March at a joint factory park located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. A South Korean Unification Ministry official would not comment on the YTN report.
His release would likely ease tensions on the Korean peninsula that have risen following the North's May 25 nuclear test and threats to attack the South.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang last week and secured the freedom of two U.S. journalists who had been held by the reclusive North since March for suspected illegal entry.
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