Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and Yoon Soon-gu, an aide to the South Korean deputy foreign minister, have discussed the incident involving Russian aircraft allegedly violating the South Korean airspace and the situation with a Russian fishing vessel detained by North Korean border guards.
“Deputy minister’s assistant, Yoon Soon-gu, has expressed deep regret over the situation with Russian military aircraft violating the South Korean airspace, given the friendly trust-based relations that the countries have been enjoying over the past two years”, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said. “He has also called on the Russian side to study measures to prevent similar incidents”.
According to Seoul, Morgulov has noted the need to investigate the incident and has also suggested maintaining close contact so that the incident does not ruin cooperation, the ministry said.
The South Korean official has thanked Morgulov for “cooperation on the successful release of two South Korean crew members who were on board of the Russian fishing vessel detained in North Korea”.
On 23 July, Russian and Chinese military conducted the first joint patrol by long-range aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region. South Korea accused Russia of violating the country’s airspace over the Sea of Japan.
On 17 July, North Korean border guards detained Russia’s Xianghailin-8 fishing vessel with 17 crew members on board, including two South Koreans, and escorted it to the port city of Wonsan. North Korea said that the vessel was detained for illegally crossing the country,s water borders, which the shipowner denied. Finally, on 27 July, the vessel was released.