North Korea is holding 15 Russian and two South Korean crew of a fishing vessel for violating entry regulations, the Russian Embassy in North Korea said on Wednesday, Euronews reports.
The crew were detained on July 17 by North Korean border guards, and are currently being held in a hotel in the city of Wonsan, the Russian embassy in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang said in a post on its Facebook page.
The ship, identified by the embassy as the Xiangheilin-8, owned by the Northeast Fishery Company out of Nevelsk, Russia, was also at Wonsan.
According to the embassy, North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the crew was detained for "violating the rules of entry and stay in the territory of (North Korea)."
A spokeswoman for South Korea's Foreign Ministry did not have an immediate comment on the two South Korean crew members.
Russian diplomats are working to solve the problem of a Russian ship, detained by North Korea last week; they have already managed to meet with the ship’s crew, a Russian Foreign Ministry’s representative in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok told TASS on Wednesday.
"The embassy was notified [about the detention] on the same day [July 18], diplomats have been working to solve the issue from the very outset. As far as I know, they have already managed to meet with the ship’s crew," the source said.
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