A North Korean fisherman died and eight others were wounded Saturday when Russian coastguards fired on them after a routine maritime check degenerated into violence, the Russian security services said.

The "Dae Yang 10" was stopped and the Russian authorities found it was carrying an "illegal" haul, a statement said, adding that the trawler had 48 people on board.

"The crew reacted in an aggressive manner with the coastguards and refused to obey the law," it said.

A skirmish broke out and a Russian coastguard was injured in the head.

His colleagues then fired in "legitimate self-defence", injuring nine people. One of them died of his wounds later.

Russia shares a small land border with the hermetic Stalinist state and Pyongyang and Moscow have relatively good relations.