SEOUL – Beijing is pressuring Pyongyang to release a captured Chinese fishing boat and its 16 crew members (above) after a campaign calling for the Chinese government to secure their release gained popular support on the internet.

The boat, Liaoning 25222, is one of a pair of small fishing vessels owned by a Dalian-based fisherman named Yu Xuejun.

“I saw a patrol boat take Liaoning 25222 in the direction of North Korean territorial waters,” the captain of a Dandong-based wooden trawler reportedly told Yu’s other boat, the Liaoning 25221.

Yao Guofeng, the capitan of the second boat, was able to