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Four N. Korean seamen rescued by a Russian ship in the Sea of Japan were delivered safely to Vladivostok on Tuesday, a press statement from the city’s Marine Rescue Center reported.

The N. Korean motor boat with four people in distress was spotted by the vessel ‘Muostakh’ of Russia’s Arctic Shipping Company. The vessel approached the boat taking it in tow and the seamen on board.

Currently, the rescued seamen are aboard the ship waiting for a representative of the N. Korea Consulate General in the Russian Far East, the statement said.

Last November a Russian cargo ship took in tow a N. Korean schooner which lost control and was drifting in the Sea of Japan. The schooner was then pulled to Primorye’s port of Nakhodka for technical assistance.

Late in October 2006, the Russian cargo ship Sinegorye sank in the Sea of Japan off S. Korea's coast. The rescue operation was conducted by S. Korean and Russian patrol boats and aircraft, with 11 sailors rescued and another five bodies recovered, including two bodies spotted in the territorial waters of N. Korea. The search was aggravated by N. Korea’s refusal to allow S. Korean patrol boats to enter its territorial waters, with no N. Korean patrol vessels participating in the rescue efforts.