20.02.2009, 12:07
Consul not allowed onboard Russian ship detained by North Korea Russia's consul in North Korea has been denied permission to board a Russian vessel earlier seized by border guards off the coast of the secretive communist state, the ship's owner said on Friday according to RIA Novosti. North Korea detained the Omsky-122 cargo ship, owned by the Amur shipping company, in Cape Musudan in the Sea of Japan late on Tuesday, and the vessel was escorted to the North Korean port of Kimchaek. Pyongyang reportedly has a missile-testing facility on the shore of Cape Musudan. "The Russian consul was to visit the ship on Thursday, but the border guards refused to allow him onboard without giving any explanation," a spokesman for the Amur shipping company said. He added that the company had so far failed to establish contact with the crew. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry the ship was forced to enter North Korean territorial waters due to a storm and was detained 5.7 miles (9.1 km) from the country's coastline. According to the Amur shipping company, the Omsky-122 has a crew of 17 and enough supplies of food and water for 15 days. Russian ships were also seized by North Korea in 2008 and 2005 in its territorial waters before eventually being released.
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