UPDATE - All Russian Border Guards Injured By North Korean Poachers Remain In Hospital -Authorities

VLADIVOSTOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2019) All four Russian border guards, who were injured in an attack by North Korean poachers in the Sea of Japan, have been hospitalized and remain in stable condition, a spokesperson for the Far Eastern Transport Investigation Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee told Sputnik on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Russian Investigative Committee said that four Russian border servicemen had been injured in the attack. Following the incident, the Russian border guards have detained at least 161 poachers from North Korea in the Sea of Japan.

"All four people have been hospitalized, one of them with a penetrating gunshot wound.

Two of them underwent surgeries. Their condition is stable," the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the injured border guards are being questioned as part of the investigation into the incident.

"The injured border guards are being questioned under the criminal case investigation," the spokesperson added.

Since the sanctions against North Korea were tightened in 2017 over repeated nuclear and missile tests, the country's population has been making money through illegal trafficking of sea food, part of which is poached in the Russian exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan.