China says it has called on North Korea to secure the release of a fishing boat and its crew seized earlier this month. Owner Yu Xuejun said the vessel had been in Chinese waters when the 16-man crew were seized on 5 May. Mr Yu said the North Korean captors were demanding a 600,000 yuan ($100,000, £66,000) ransom. State-run Xinhua news agency said that diplomats in Pyongyang had been asked for help on 10 May and were working on the issue. "Upon receiving the call, the Chinese embassy promptly made representations to the... DPRK [North Korean] Foreign Ministry, asking the DPRK side to release the boat and the fishermen as soon as possible," the agency quoted Counsellor Jiang Yaxian of Beijing's embassy in Pyongyang as saying. It called for the crews' "legitimate rights and interests" to be safeguarded, he added. Boat-owner Mr Yu told Global Times newspaper he had received eight calls from the people holding his crew demanding the ransom. There have been incidents in the past in the Yellow Sea, which lies between China and the Korean peninsula and has rich fishing grounds.
