By RIA Novosti
Moscow : North Korea Sunday said the Russian ship it had seized violated the country’s maritime border, the Russian embassy in Seoul said.
North Korean coast guards Saturday morning detained the Russian commercial vessel near a port, the embassy spokesman said.
The Lidiya Demesh was carrying a batch of cars from the Japanese port of Hamata to Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, when the North Korean border guard vessel stopped it near Cape Musudan, eight km from North Korea’s shores.
“They [the crew] are accused of border violation,” an embassy official said on the phone.
The diplomat said the members of the crew were safe and the Russian consul-general was maintaining close contacts with them.
“I hope that our vessel will soon be released without any conditions,” the diplomat said.