North Korea returned on Tuesday a South Korean man who entered the communist country through the border with China in September.
 
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said that the 48-year-old man, identified only by his surname Lee, was handed over to the South through the truce village of Panmunjom at 4:30 Tuesday.
 
A ministry official said that the North notified Seoul of its plan to repatriate one South Korean through a Red Cross message sent around 9:45 a.m.
 
Lee entered the North through the Yalu River bordering China and North Korea on September 30.
 
This is the third time the North has released a South Korean national so far this year.
 
The ministry said that it is a relief that the North has returned South Korean citizens, and urged the North to also release other South Koreans being held in the country.