MANILA, 3 July — A South Korean treasure hunter, kidnapped four months ago in the southern Philippines by a gang on the US list of terrorist groups, was released yesterday, officials said.

Regional police chief Bartolome Baluyot said Yoon Jae-keon was freed in the village of Butril in Palembang town, Sultan Kudarat province, 1,005 kilometers south of Manila.

“He was turned over this morning by his kidnappers to Palembang Mayor Labualas Mamansual,” Baluyot said.

Presidential adviser Jesus Dureza, who said he helped with negotiations for the release of Yoon, said the South Korean man appeared to be in good health.

“No ransom has been paid,” Dureza said.

Mayor Mamansual, who is also the chairman of the local disaster management committee, said the victim’s “unconditional release” was enhanced by continuing pressure from both government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The two sides recently signed an agreement to cooperate in combating criminal elements operating in Mindanao, Mamansual acknowledged.

Dureza later brought Yoon to Cotabato City, north of Sultan Kudarat, for a brief meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was visiting the area.

Appearing haggard and speaking through an interpreter from the South Korean Embassy in Manila, Yoon said he thanked Arroyo, the military and local officials for his release. “I am now here, alive,” he said.

He was turned over to a South Korean consular official and was to be debriefed later by the military, officials said. Yoon, in his mid-40s, was kidnapped Feb. 6 in the nearby town of Maitum in Sarangani province while on a treasure hunting expedition with a Filipino hotel owner.

“I want to go back to Korea, then relax,” Yoon said, when asked what he would do after his ordeal.

He claimed that he would have been released earlier, but negotiators prodded his kidnappers to demand as much as 15 million pesos ($300,000) in ransom.

“They (kidnappers) told me that any amount of ransom will do,” he said. “Only the negotiators and mediators were bad. Because of them my release was delayed.”

He, however, confirmed that no ransom was paid for his freedom.

Frankie Tañedo, a councilman in the nearby town of Maitum and one of the negotiators, said Mamansual released 50 sacks of rice as part of the deal for Yoon’s release but no cash was involved. Yoon said his captors were “good people.”

“They treated me well during my captivity,” he said, adding that he would go back to the southern region of Mindanao to continue his scrap metal business.

But a spokesman for the South Korean Embassy in Manila said it may take a while before Yoon can come back to the Philippines since he is facing a criminal charge in South Korea.

“He will be deported to face trial,” said embassy spokesman Yong-Soo Lee. He did not reveal what crime Yoon is charged with in South Korea.

Authorities have blamed the Pentagon kidnapping-for-ransom gang for the abduction of Yoon. The Filipino hotel owner was rescued a month after the kidnapping.

According to the military, the Pentagon group is composed of former and rogue members of MILF. The syndicate has been blamed for the abduction of several foreign nationals in the south, including an Italian priest who was freed in April.