N Korea accuses fishing boat crew

Previous incidents have been successfully resolved North Korea says it seized a South Korean fishing boat on Thursday because it "illegally intruded" deep into its territorial waters. It said a "relevant institution was conducting a concrete investigation". South Korea says the boat drifted 11km (7 miles) too far north because of a navigational error. It called for the quick release of the four-man crew. The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between North and South Korea. South Korean officials first reported the capture of the 29-tonne boat, the Yeonanho, in the Sea of Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea. A South Korean defence ministry spokesman, Lee Bung-woo, said the crew, who were fishing for squid, had reported a malfunction with their satellite navigation system. The South says it has received no response from North Korea to its request for the boat to be returned. There are concerns that the tension between the two Koreas may hamper negotiations, following the North's recent missile tests, and the South's support for international sanctions. A South Korean worker who was based at a joint industrial project has been held for almost four months by the North, accused of insulting its political system. Two US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were captured along North Korea's border with China in March, are also still being held. But similar incidents involving fishing vessels straying across the boundary have been successfully resolved in the past. The two countries technically remain at war, as they signed a truce, not a peace treaty, at the end of their three-year conflict in 1953.