North Korean ghost boats wash up in Japan

SEOUL/TOKYO – Fishing boats carrying decomposed corpses have washed ashore in Japan in recent weeks, leading to speculation they are rickety North Korean vessels that have strayed dangerously far from port under the impoverished nation’s push to boost its catch.

There has been no mention from secretive North Korea of any missing boats, but its leader, Kim Jong-un, has put a high priority on fishing as a way of earning foreign currency and providing a sustainable food source that is not reliant on harvests and weather.

The Japanese coast guard and police reported 12 incidents of wrecked wooden boats, including some that were in pieces, on the country’s shores and waters since October, containing 22 dead bodies, including five skulls.

Japanese authorities declined to comment on the origins of the boats or the possible identities of the dead, but a hand-written sign identified one boat as belonging to unit 325 of the North Korean army, according to footage from Japan’s NHK Television.

Tattered cloth was found aboard the vessel that appeared to come from the North Korean flag, the video showed.

Defectors and experts say fishing boats under the command of the Korean People’s Army may have succumbed under pressure from Kim to catch more fish, drifting off course and ill-equipped for rough seas.

TV images of some of the boats showed relatively large but otherwise primitive-looking motorised craft and the coastguard said they did not have GPS navigation systems. Those aboard could have died of starvation and exposure to the cold after getting lost.

Although Japan’s Meteorological Agency said there was not unusually bad weather in the Sea of Japan this November, the waters are rougher at this time of year due to the onset of cold, northwesterly winds.

October through February is also prime season for squid, sandfish and king crab off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, and it is not unusual that there would be high numbers of boats at sea, said Kim Do-hoon, a professor of fisheries science at Pukyong National University in Busan.

“Kim Jong-un has been promoting the fisheries sector, which could explain why there are more fishing boats going out,” he said.

Over the years, North Korean boats seeking the rich fishing grounds of the Sea of Japan have washed ashore in Japan as well as on the deserted beaches of the Russian Far East. North Koreans looking to defect, on the other hand, typically flee by land into China, or, less often, via coastal waters to neighbouring South Korea.

Fishing is a vital industry in a country where millions cannot find enough to eat. North Korea’s 1,2 million-strong army is heavily engaged in food production, including fishing.

Kim, North Korea’s young leader, has made boosting food production a priority for the isolated country since taking office after his father died in late 2011, and recently visited a KPA fishing station on North Korea’s east coast, calling for the facility to be upgraded, the official KCNA news agency said.

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