By RIA Novosti
Moscow : North Korean authorities Sunday refused permission to a Russian diplomat to meet the crew of a Russian ship detained in the Sea of Japan for allegedly violating the North Korean maritime boundary.
The Russian Lidiya Demesh vessel was carrying a batch of cars from the Japanese port of Hamata to Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, when a North Korean border guard vessel stopped it near Cape Musudan, some five miles from North Korea’s shores, Saturday morning.
“I intended to go there [to meet with the crew] but was not allowed on the ground that the investigation is not yet over,” Valery Valkovich, Russia’s general consul in Chongjin, said over the phone.
The diplomat said there was a 25-member crew aboard the ship who were safe and expressed his hope that the vessel would soon be released.