Vladivostok, June 25: A new ferry route connecting Russia, Japan and South Korea will open from July 6, official sources said.
The route will link Russia’s Vladivostok with Japan’s Sakaiminato in the northern Tottori Prefecture and South Korea’s port of Donghai.
The Eastern Dream ferryboat that will service the route has the capacity to seat 500 passengers and can carry 70 cars and containers and enter Vladivostok once a week, on Tuesdays.
The launch of a new route was initiated by the Primorsky Territory administration, Tottori Prefecture and South Korea’s Gangwon Province, the talks for which have been underway since November 2007.
However, the route was finalised during a summit of administration officials of Northeast Asian countries in Vladivostok last September.
The Primorsky territory administration says the launch of this route will boost cooperation in trade and tourism.
According to the new rules which came into force from March 3,2009, the visitors can stay in the Russian territory for 72 hours without visas.
–Agencies