Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed concern over a Russian company's plans to launch a cargo and passenger ferry service between Russia and North Korea in May, local media reported Friday.
Speaking about the proposed ferry service between Russia's Vladivostok and North Korean Rason, Kishida said that Japan expected Russia to "act as a responsible state of the UNSC," the Kyodo news agency reported.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Baranov, representative of Russia's InvestStroiTrest company, told Sputnik that the Mangyongbong-92 ferry would run between Vladivostok and Rason since May with approximately six voyage a month. At first, the company plans to transfer Chinese tourists from China's Hunchun, as well as Russian tourists, to North Korea with a ticket price worth nearly 550 yuan ($80), he added.
Passenger ferries have never run between Russia and North Korea before. The North Korean city of Rason, bordering Russia's Primorsky Territory and China's Jilin province holds a status of a special economic zone and possesses a warm water port.
