Russian search fails to find missing North Korean boat crew

MOSCOW: A Russian rescue helicopter on Saturday found the wreckage of a North Korean fishing boat off the Russian Far Eastern coast but failed to find four missing crew members, authorities said. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said crew members had reported an incident to rescue services during a storm. Two of the six crew, it said, were then evacuated by a “passing liner” which could not reach the others because of high waves. The Russian emergency services sent a Mi-8 helicopter that found fragments of the wreckage 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the port city of Vladivostok in the Sea of Japan. It spent three and a half hours examining the area from the air but did not find the remaining crew members. “The fate of the four men is unknown,” the ministry’s statement said. It added that the rescue operation has been difficult due to fast changing weather conditions with heavy rain, hurricane winds and waves of up to six meters high.