North Korea said it will repatriate a South Korean boat and its crew who entered its waters last week. 
 
The North's state media Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) reported on Friday that North Korean authorities had captured a South Korean fishing boat named "391 Hungjin" Saturday, which illegally entered the North's waters in the East Sea.  
 
The report said that the South Korean crew was found to have deliberately entered North Korean waters to fish, but the North Korean authorities decided to send them back home at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
 
The North said it decided to repatriate the boat and its crew from a humanitarian point of view, considering that all the crewmen admitted their offence and asked for leniency. 
 
North Korea said it will repatriate the boat and its crew at the designated waters of the military boundary line in the East Sea.

Seoul's Unification Ministry confirmed that seven Korean and three Vietnamese crew were on board the vessel. A ministry official said the boat departed from the southeastern island of Ulleung last week Monday, but it has been out of reach since Saturday night and maritime police have been on a search. 

[Photo : ]