UN Command to repatriate rescued NKorean officer

A North Korean army sergeant rescued at sea by the South Korean navy over the weekend will be sent back to the North, officials said Tuesday.

The repatriation arrangements were made after the officer was cleared of spying, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

The North Korean officer was plucked from a small boat that drifted Sunday into South Korean waters off the divided peninsula's western coast, officials said.

The North Korean officer reportedly told investigators he had been fishing when his boat strayed southward. The waters off the western coast are considered a rich crabbing area but have been the scene of three deadly naval skirmishes in the past decade, including one gunbattle last month.

During questioning, the soldier expressed the desire to be sent back home. He is to be repatriated Wednesday from the border village of Panmunjom, the U.N. Command said in a statement Tuesday.

The U.S.-run U.N. Command oversees the armistice that ended the three-year Korean War in 1953. The two Koreas remain technically at war since the truce has not been replaced by a peace treaty.

North Korea disputes the western maritime border drawn by United Nations, and the rival Koreas fought a brief but deadly gunbattle last month off the west coast not far from where the North Korean military officer was found.

One North Korean officer was killed and three others were wounded in the November gunfight, according to South Korean military officials.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high this year, with North Korea carrying out nuclear and missile tests, but Pyongyang has reached out recently to Seoul and Washington. President Barack Obama is to send a special envoy to Pyongyang next week to try to entice North Korea to return to international nuclear disarmament talks.