SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea expressed its willingness to talk about a South Korean worker being held in the communist nation, a news report said Friday after Pyongyang freed two American journalists following a trip by former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton also urged the North to free the worker and other detained South Koreans and make progress on the issue of abducted Japanese citizens during his landmark trip to Pyongyang earlier this week that included a rare meeting with leader Kim Jong Il, South Korean and Japanese officials said.

Clinton brought home the two U.S. journalists detained for 140 days for allegedly entering North Korea illegally.

North Korea has also been holding the South Korean worker at a North-South joint industrial zone since late March for allegedly denouncing its communist regime. Last week, the North seized a South Korean fishing boat with four fishermen after it accidentally strayed into northern waters.

Pyongyang has refused to talk about the detained South Koreans amid badly frayed ties with Seoul.

But on Friday, Seoul's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said the North indicated its willingness to negotiate the worker's release when the chairwoman of Hyundai Asan, a South Korean firm with close business ties to the regime, visits the North on Tuesday.