VLADIVOSTOK (Russia): Russian border guards detained 28 North Korean fishermen overnight for illegal squid fishing off Russia's far east coast, a border official said on Friday.

The North Koreans and their four fishing boats were detained along with 340 kilograms of squid in the Russian part of the Sea of Japan, said Natalya Rondoleva, spokeswoman for the border service in the Primorsky region.

The fishermen will be sent back home once their identities have been verified, she said.

Last year over 300 North Korean fishermen were detained and sent back home by Russian border guards, making North Koreans the most frequent violators of the region's border regime, she said.

“Despite repeated appeals by the leadership of the Primorsky border guard for the North Koreans to strengthen measures to prevent violations... we see continued violations by North Korean vessels,” she said.—AFP