North Korea has seized a South Korean fishing boat off the peninsula’s east coast, Seoul’s coastguard said yesterday, amid high tensions between the two sides over a major naval exercise by the South.

The boat with four South Korean and three Chinese crewmen was detained while presumably operating near the North’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) the coastguard said in a statement.

It was being towed yesterday to the North’s northeastern port of Songjin.

“We urge North Korean authorities to handle this case in accordance with international norms and practices and return the ship and the crew at the earliest possible date,” the coastguard said.

It was not immediately clear whether the 41-ton Daeseung 55 was suspected of illegal fishing. The seizure was reported on the fourth day of the five-day exercise in the Yellow Sea on the other side of the peninsula. The drill has stirred anger and threats of retaliation from the North.

Cross-border relations have been stormy since South Korea and the US, citing findings of a multinational investigation, accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March.

The North denies involvement in the sinking and has threatened retaliation for what it calls a provocative drill staged in response to the sinking.

The exercise, which involves 4,500 troops, 29 ships and 50 fighter jets, is one of a series planned in coming months – some of them with South Korea’s ally the US – in a show of strength against the North.

YTN television said the fishing boat sent a message at 11 a.m. yesterday saying it was heading for Songjin.

The television quoted a Seoul government official as saying the boat had been operating in or near a fishing area jointly shared between Russia and North Korea, 270 kilometres east of the North’s Musudan region.

The 41-ton vessel’s home port is Pohang in the southeast of South Korea. It left port on August 1 and was scheduled to return on September 10, Yonhap news agency said.

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