North Korea seizes Russian ship
North Korea detained a Russian fishing boat with 17 sailors on board, reports Kommersant news outlet with reference to the deputy director of the company that owns the ship, Sergey Sedler.
According to Sedler, the ship Sakhalin-8 that belongs to the Northeast fishing company traveled from South Korean port Sokcho and headed to the Sea of Japan for crab fishing.
"At 4 a.m. on July 17 [North Korean] border guards boarded the ship and turned off all means of communication. We did not immediately understand what happened. At first, we thought that they were drifting, but then we realized that they were captured," Sedler said.
He said that 15 Russians and two citizens of South Korea were on board of a fishing vessel. The vessel was escorted to the port of Wonsan in North Korea, 14 sailors are kept on the boat. They are searched and interrogated. The captain, his assistant, and two South Korean crew members are also detained and are held in a hotel.
Earlier, the Director of the Northeast fishing company Viktor Sedler told the RBC news agency that the capture of the vessel occurred 53 miles from the shore (almost 100 km), although the territorial waters of the country are an area of 12 nautical miles from the coast.
According to Victor Sedler, the alleged reason for the detention was illegal border crossing.