North Korea has repatriated a South Korean boat and its crew that it says entered its waters last week. 
 
South Korea's Coast Guard office in Sokcho said the North returned the "391 Heungjin" to the South at the inter-Korean maritime border in the East Sea at 6:38 p.m. on Friday. 

A Coast Guard official told KBS that the crew members are all safe and healthy. 

The North's official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) reported earlier in the day that North Korean authorities had captured the South Korean fishing boat Saturday after it illegally entered the North's waters in the East Sea.  
 
The KCNA said the South Korean crew deliberately entered North Korean waters to fish, but the North decided to send them back home from a humanitarian point of view, considering that all the crewmen admitted their offence and asked for leniency. 
 
The South Korean Unification Ministry confirmed seven Korean and three Vietnamese were on board the vessel. A ministry official said the boat departed from the southeastern island of Ulleung last week Monday. Maritime police had been searching for the ship after radio contact was lost Saturday night. 

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