HONG KONG — North Korea has released a Chinese fishing boat and its crew, ending a dispute that threatened to exacerbate strains with China, according to Chinese news reports on Tuesday.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry revealed the incident on Sunday and urged North Korea to free the 16 fishermen and their vessel, which the North seized in waters between the countries on May 5. People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main newspaper, reported that the Chinese Embassy in North Korea said the boat and crew had been released and were heading home. The report did not say whether North Korea received a payment, as it had demanded.

The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the vessel’s owner, Yu Xuejun, had called the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on May 10 to seek help after North Korea captured the fishing boat, which operates from Dalian, a northeastern Chinese port city.

The ministry did not explain why it had waited so long to reveal the seizure, which has come at a time of brittle tensions with North Korea, an isolated country that depends on Beijing for diplomatic and economic support.