Russian coastguard said on Friday that it detained more than 400 North Korean fishermen in September on allegations of illegal operation in Russian territorial waters.
Russia’s coastguard announced that 262 North Korean fisherman were detained between sept. 23 to 27, 2019 with about 30,000 allegedly poached squid seized in the round-up.
“The sailors were detained for poaching in exclusively Russian waters’’, a spokeswoman said in televised comments.
State media reported that the fishing vessels were being held in the Russian ports of Nakhodka and Posyet, within 200 kilometres of the North Korean border.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, which oversees the border authorities, said that 161 North Korean fishermen had been detained on poaching allegations.
The Federal Security Service said in a statement that during the detention of a crew of one of those vessels, the North Korean side fired gunshots, wounding four Russian servicemen.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned North Korea’s charge d’affaires over that incident.
Russia and China, which share land borders with North Korea, have the closest diplomatic relations with the insular North Korean state.
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