The incident occurred on June 16 about 50 kilometers from the nautical border distinguishing Korean waters from Russian waters. Before Katalexa could reach the port city of Vladivostok, home of the Trans-Siberia Railway terminus and neighbor to nearby China and North Korea, a North Korean patrol ship intercepted her. The crew aboard the Katalexa denied any wrongdoing, but were briefly detained by North Korea anyway.
Russian emissaries reached out to their counterparts in Pyongyang to resolve the situation and oversaw Katalexa’s return to Russia just three days later. Alexander Matsegora, Russian ambassador to North Korea, intervened to ensure the vessel and its crew got home safe.
North Korea may have only been pursuing due diligence. "I spoke with the captain of the yacht, Alexander Sidorenko, and he said that the Koreans were polite, attentive, and the crew are all fine," Vladivostok Ayle Parusa Yacht Club chief Artem Moiseenkov told Asia Times.
While Russian diplomats were Johnny-on-the-spot, "the North Korean officials also acted correctly, didn’t try to make up any charges and there was no physical coercion,” said Konstantin Asmolov, analyst at the Center for Korean Research at the Institute of the Far East.
"They just didn’t understand why they had been detained," Moiseenkov said of his conversation with the Katalexa’s skipper. "The border patrol apologized for the detention … as far as I know, the crew has no gripes."
