The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) freed Thursday the South Korean employee who has been detained in its territory for some four months, South Korea's unification ministry said.

According to Unification Ministry Spokesman Chun Hae-sung, Yu Seong-jin, Hyundai Asian Corp.'s engineer, was handed over to Hyundai at 05:10 p.m. (0810 GMT) at the Kaesong Joint Industrial Park.

The move came amid the chief of South Korea's Hyundai Group visiting the DPRK in pursuit of his release.

The freed worker is believed to cross the border to the South Korean territory at local time 07:00 p.m. (1000 GMT).

The Hyundai employee was detained by the DPRK authorities on March 30 for publicly denouncing the regime and trying to allure a female DPRK worker to defect from the nation.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2009)