SEOUL, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- North Korean officials said Monday they will free a South Korean squid fishing boat and its seven-member crew.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the boat was captured almost a month ago on the east coast for allegedly violating the North's exclusive economic zone.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the crew, four South Koreans and three Chinese, admitted straying into the exclusive zone in the East Sea. The report said the release of the vessel, the 55 Daesung, and crew was made "from the compatriotic and humanitarian points of view."

The fishing boat disappeared Aug. 8 while in the East Sea.

The decision to release the boat came about a week after the South's Red Cross offered to send 10 billion won ($8.4 million) in flood aid to the North, Yonhap reported.