Russian police detained a South Korean citizen today on suspicion of smuggling radioactive materials into the Russian Far East, media reported.
Itar-Tass news agency cited prosecutors in the Pacific city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk as saying the man, identified as Kim Jong-hon, worked for a South Korean firm suspected of illegally trading sensitive materials.
The South Korean embassy in Moscow could not confirm the report and it was not immediately clear where the materials had come from.
RIA-Novosti news agency said Kim's detention followed the seizure of 13 devices containing radioactive material earlier this month in the port of Korsakov, across the sea from Japan's Hokkaido island.
RIA said the devices contained low-enriched uranium-238, a highly toxic material mainly used in ammunition and armour plating. Experts say it can be theoretically used to make a nuclear "dirty bomb".
Prevention of illegal trade in radioactive materials in Russia has become a big issue for the West after this year's discovery of a global nuclear black market run by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that supplied technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.