MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Eleven sailors from the Russian dry cargo ship Sinegorye, which recently sank in the Sea of Japan, have been rescued in a joint Russian-Korean rescue operation, the Russian Transportation Ministry told Interfax.
Four sailors died, and three others are still unaccounted for, the ministry said citing the main maritime rescue coordination center as of 9:30 a.m. Moscow time.
The rescue tug Yury Orlenko discovered the body of a dead sailor and retrieved it from the water earlier on Thursday. Another two bodies were spotted in the North Korean territorial waters from a South Korean rescue aircraft.
"The Foreign Ministry is currently working to secure the Yury Orlenko's entrance to the North Korean territorial waters," it said.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed to Interfax that the bodies of three dead sailors were discovered on Thursday. The ministry source said one of these bodies was taken aboard a Russian vessel and the two others aboard a South Korean vessel.
The Sinegorye, which was carrying timber from the village of Plastun in Primorye to Hong Shu in China, sent a distress signal on October 23. The high seas and collisions with the timber it was carrying opened a crack in the ship's hull. The captain ordered part of the cargo to be jettisoned and turned toward the nearest South Korean port located about 90 miles from the site of the accident. Several hours later, radio contact with the ship was lost, and the ship sank before the Korean vessels arrived at scene.