Four Russian Border Servicemen Injured After North Korean Poachers' Attack - Investigators

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Four Russian border servicemen, and not three as earlier reported, were injured in an attack by North Korean poachers in the East Sea, the Russian Investigative Committee said Wednesday.

According to the committee, "four personnel suffered wounds of different degree of severity, one of them — a gunshot wound."

The Federal Security Service detained two vessels and more than 80 North Koreans on Tuesday.

The Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case.

Since the sanctions against North Korea were tightened in 2017 over repeated nuclear and missile tests, the country's population has been making money through illegal trafficking of seafood, part of which is poached in the Russian EEZ.

Last week, the FSB said it detained 250 North Koreans after 16 small vessels were detected poaching squids in the Russian EEZ. According to the FSB, at least 100 such vessels are drifting close to Russia's Sakhalin island.