North Korean authorities have released a Japanese man who entered the country as a tourist, the state-run KCNA said on Sunday, but without specifying details of any alleged criminal conduct.

“Tomoyuki Sugimoto, who visited the DPRK as a Japanese tourist recently, was kept under control by a relevant institution to be inquired into his crime against the law of the DPRK,” the KCNA said.

“The relevant institution of the DPRK decided to leniently condone him and expel him from the DPRK on the principle of humanitarianism,” the short state-media report added.

The 39-year-old Japanese tourist had been arrested in