SOUTH Korea sent home a rescued North Korean sailor yesterday and awaited a response from the communist state to a renewed call for peace talks.
Chung Kwang-son, a private first class in North Korea's navy, was escorted by United Nations Command and handed over at the village of Panmunjom.
Once on home soil, Pte Chung raised his arms and shouted "Hooray, Hooray" several times before bursting into tears.
Col Park Im-su decorated Pte Chung with a badge of North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-il, and thanked UN Command for sending Pte Chung home on humamtarian grounds.
Pte Chung (19), was picked up by a South Korean maritime police vessel and taken to the western port city of Inchon on Saturday after his boat drifted into Southern waters.
Pte Chung's return was the first goodwill gesture by Seoul towards Pyongyang since already-tense relations between the two Koreas worsened after a Northern submarine landed 26 agents on the South Korean coast in September. All but two of the 26 are known to be dead. One has been captured and another is still at large.
Pte Chung's return home comes two days after President Bill Clinton and South Korean leader, Mr Kim Young-sam, urged the North "to take acceptable steps to resolve the submarine incident, reduce tension and avoid such provocations in the future".
At a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in the Philippines, Mr Clinton and Mr Kim also renewed an invitation to North Korea to join four-nation peace talks, which would also involve China.
Seoul officials said Mr Kim told President Clinton that once the North agreed to talks the next task would be to seek an apology from Pyongyang over the submarine incursion.
US Congressman Bill Richardson flew from Tokyo to Pyongyang on Monday in hopes of securing the release of American, Mr Evan Hunziker, who was arrested on August 24th after crossing the Yalu River from China into North Korea.