North Korea said it will soon release a South Korean fishing boat and seven crew members it seized in the East Sea early last month.

The move to free the three Chinese and four South Korean crew members along with the 41-ton Daeseungho 55 squid boat appears to be a conciliatory gesture ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the communist state's ruling Workers' Party. The conference starts this week in Pyongyang and is expected to last until next week.

Analysts suspect there could be some kind of decision on who will soon replace the ailing 68-year-old leader, Kim Jong Il.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said that "although the Daeseungho 55 had threatened our sovereignty by crossing the border, the crew members have admitted their wrongdoing and sincerely asked for repatriation, which led us to decide to return them."

The North Korean Red Cross is said to have contacted its South Korean counterpart to help with the transfer on the East Sea coast along the 1953 demarcation line.

The two Koreas are separated by the line created from a negotiated cease-fire after three years of armed conflict. The countries remain technically at war because no peace treaty has been signed.

The North's communist party has continued to rule. But Kim's health, as well as the grooming of his son Kim Jong Un, 27, for political roles, has caused speculation that a handover is imminent.

Kim Jong Il -- often referred to as "Dear Leader" by North Korean media -- recently and unexpectedly visited China, Pyongyang's neighbor and main political and economic ally.

It was thought he was there to discuss his succession plans with China's communist rulers. But this was denied by Jin Jingyi, professor of international politics at the Department of Korean Studies and deputy director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center at Peking University in Beijing.

Jin said Kim Jong Il's discussion with Chinese leaders focused on economic issues.

Jin also gave no indication that Kim's son would take center stage at the North Korean communist party's conference in Pyongyang.

"Of course, the party conference is important as it is an occasion to introduce some new faces in the leadership," he said.

Last year there was speculation that the Swiss-educated Kim Jong Un was already leading the Workers Party of Korea as part of his eventual rise to replace his father.

Kim Jong Un reportedly attended the English-language International School of Bern under a false name in 1998, and few photographs of him exist.

His father, Kim Jong Il, took power in 1994 upon the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, a devoted communist who ruled North Korea from its founding in 1948. But the current leader is said to have suffered a severe stroke in 2008 and he may have some form of cancer.

earlier related report
N.Korea returns S.Korea fishing boat, seeks flood aid
Seoul (AFP) Sept 7, 2010 - North Korea Tuesday returned a South Korean fishing boat seized a month ago and requested flood aid from its neighbour, in an apparent easing of tensions after months of hostility.

The squid fishing boat and seven crew -- four South Koreans and three Chinese -- crossed the east coast sea border en route to its home port, the South's coastguard said.

The North announced Monday it would return the 41-tonne boat, seized on August 8 for allegedly trespassing in an exclusive economic zone, as a "humanitarian" gesture.

Seoul's unification ministry said separately the North had asked for rice, cement and heavy construction equipment in response to an offer by the South's Red Cross to provide flood relief aid worth 10 billion won (8.3 million dollars).

"If the South is to send flood aid, it will be better that resources and equipment needed for recovery from flood damage be sent along with rice," the ministry quoted the North's message received last Saturday as saying.

Spokesman Chun Hae-Sung said Seoul was considering the request.

Cross-border relations have been icy since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing of one its warships in March, killing 46 people. The North denies the charge.

However, the Red Cross offered the North instant noodles, bottled water, medication and other necessities in response to serious floods in its northwest. Construction equipment was not part of the offer.

"Providing construction equipment would be an unrealistic option for the South because there is a possibility that it could later be used for military purposes," Yang Moo-Jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, told Yonhap news agency.

"Cement wouldn't draw too much controversy."

Heavy rain which pounded the border zone between China and North Korea last month badly damaged crops, houses and public buildings along with roads and railways, according to official media.

The North's apparent change of attitude comes on the eve of a major conference of its ruling communist party, at which delegates are expected to endorse the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-Il as eventual successor.

Seoul in recent years supplied the North with massive annual rice and fertiliser aid. This was suspended in 2008 as relations worsened after conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office in Seoul.