VLADIVOSTOK, October 10 (RIA Novosti, Anatoli Ilyukhov) - Security officials in Russia's Far East expressed concern Monday over the growing number of illegal border crossings by fishing boats from North Korea, after another 232 North Korean fishermen were expelled from Russia's territorial waters off the Pacific Coast.
The Federal Security Service's Pacific coast guard department said the fishermen were crewmembers of eight boats that had been detained for poaching in one of Russia's exclusive economic zones.
According to statistics cited by department officials, as many as 20 North Korean vessels have been impounded in Russian territorial waters since June 2005.