North Korea's release of a South Korean worker it had detained for months signals an attempt to improve ties with Seoul and Washington amid tensions over the regime's nuclear weapons program, analysts say, AP reported. Last week, the North released jailed American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to former U.S. President Bill Clinton. On Thursday, Pyongyang deported Yoo Seong-jin, a 44-year-old technician who worked at a joint industrial park in the North, where about 110 South Korean-run factories employ about 40,000 North Korean workers. Yoo has been held for allegedly denouncing the North's government and attempting to persuade a North Korean worker to defect. «I'm happy that I returned safely,» Yoo told reporters in a brief comment after arriving at a South Korean immigration control center near the border. Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun has been in the North for the past few days, and she may have negotiated the release of Yoo, who is an employee for Hyundai's North Korean business arm, Hyundai Asan. But analysts said just as important may have been Clinton's reported urging that the Yoo be freed. After months of antagonizing Seoul and Washington _ with atomic and long-range rocket tests that drew new U.N. sanctions _ the North may be looking to turn things around, they said. In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley welcomed Yoo's release and expressed hope that it would remove an obstacle to potential dialogue between North and South. -- SPA
