A North Korean crew appears to be trapped aboard a fishing ship that has been stranded on a Russian beach ever since a destructive typhoon ripped through the area more than two months ago.

Photos taken by Russian urban explorer Lana Sator on Nov. 2 and Nov. 4 show at least one crew member still on board the stranded Kalma 2, which has not moved since it first hit ground at Nakhodka’s Volna Beach during Typhoon Maysak on Sept. 4.

Sator allegedly spoke with Russian locals and heard that the crew is still stuck in limbo. They had previously been detained in Nakhodka and were pending deportation due to a poaching offense in 2019, and their ongoing detainment could be linked to a separate trial involving the ship’s captain.

Russia’s Interfax News Agency reported in September that at least 12 crew were on board the Kalma 2 when it ran aground, and that the ship’s captain was expected to stand trial in addition to deportation.

Even so, NK News was only able to verify 11 people on the ship in a YouTube video recorded on Sept. 4.

On her Instagram, Sator wrote that the uninjured crew has “no right to leave the ship” and that “food is delivered to them by [DPRK] Embassy staff.”

“If the Koreans are photographed on a long lens, one of them will look at you [with] a huge binocular!” she added.

Sator claimed that on-site border guards allegedly told locals that the Kalma 2 had previously been detained in a “parking lot of arrested ships.” But during the typhoon, the ship had moved away from the detainment area and ran onto the shore. The guards also allegedly confirmed that the Kalma 2 and its crew had been detained for poaching for several months already by the time Typhoon Maysak hit, according to Sator.

“There’s a border post on the beach near the vessel, active 24 hours,” Sator told NK News via email. “Locals come to the beach every day to take photos with Korean ship. It has become a public attraction.”

The practice of keeping North Korean fishermen detained on their own vessels is common in Russia. In a France24 documentary released in May, Russian border officials took filmmakers to see at least seven North Korean vessels anchored in Nakhodka Bay, with their crews all detained on board.

In the same scene, a Russian border official said that “it’s up to the North Korean consulate to supply them with food, water, fuel. That all falls under the consulate’s obligations — not the Coast Guard’s.”

Aside from its DPRK Embassy in Moscow, North Korea has three consulates in Russia. One is in Nakhodka.

A timelapse of Volna Beach, before and every month after the Kalma 2 (center) ran aground. | Video: Planet Labs

In her Instagram post, Sator claims that locals told her that they believe “it was not an accident that [the Kalma 2 was] torn from the pier.” Instead, some theorized that the crew hoped the typhoon would carry them into neutral waters and thus help them escape.

In any case, the Kalma 2’s crew members may stay detained onboard the ship for an indefinite period of time as Russian and North Korean officials decide what to do with them.

“I cannot judge anyone. If there are laws about borders and fishing, they should be kept,” Sator told NK News. “But the arrest is too long.”

Edited by Kelly Kasulis