A Republic of Korea (ROK) maritime police ship crossed into Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) waters Thursday for an unprecedented search and rescue operation after a ship sank off the country's east coast, officials said. 

Three Chinese were among the 14 sailors missing from the ROK's 2,826-ton Pioneer cargo ship sailing from the Russian port of Vladivostok to the Chinese city of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province. It sank 258 kilometers northeast of Jeojin in the ROK Gangwon Province -- about 300 kilometers off DPRK's eastern coast.

The unprecedented rescue operation got underway after the DPRK allowed a vessel from ROK to enter its waters to rescue the missing crew, ROK Yonhap News Agency quoted Unification Ministry and maritime police as reporting.

Four sailors were rescued by a Russian ship passing by, but another 14 remained missing.

Yonhap said the cargo ship carrying iron frames was overloaded with more than 4,000 tons of freight.

ROK's maritime police dispatched a 5,000-ton patrol vessel to the scene of the accident, marking the country's first rescue operation in DPRK-controlled waters, said Yonhap.

Earlier, ROK asked for DPRK's permission to enter the waters for the search-and-rescue operation through contact in the border village of Panmunjom, which sits across the sealed inter-Korean border.

The DPRK gave permission to ROK immediately after the latter provided information on the sunken ship.

Separately, an operation was underway in cooperation with Russian and Japanese maritime search teams to find the 14 missing sailors.

(China Daily January 21, 2005)