NKorea releases Russia's detained ship

Moscow, Feb 27: North Korea has released today the Russian cargo ship Lydia Demesh which its coastguards detained on Saturday.

The Lydia Demesh left the North Korean port of Kimchek at about 0940 hrs (local time), sources at the Maritime Salvage and Coordination Centre in Vladivostok told Itar-Tass news agency. It is bound to call at the Vladivostok port tomorrow morning. North Korean patrol stopped the Lydia Demesh with its 25 crewmembers in the Sea of Japan about 3 to 5 nautical miles off the North Korean coast on February 23.

The vessel was carrying a consignment of second-hand cars from the Japanese port of Hamata to Vladivostok.

''All 25 crewmembers are alive and well,'' an official of the Coordination Centre in Vladivostok said.

Some Russian media reports said the ship might have been detained for straying too close to a North Korean missile-testing site.

UNI