Another North Korean fishing boat with a dead body was found off the coast of Sado Island in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture.
Japanese police said the 10 m wooden boat with fishing equipment and a dead body of a man wearing boots with Korean lettering was drifting toward Sado Island. It seems that more than two weeks have passed since the time of death.
On Nov. 28, another wooden boat carrying five dead bodies was discovered washed ashore on the island. It is also thought to have come from North Korea.
The Japanese government does not believe these boats were carrying either defectors or spies but got lost while fishing in bad weather.
An increasing number of objects from North Korea are drifting to Japan via East Sea. A 6 m log also reached Sado Island on Sunday.
In January this year, a North Korean fishing boat with three fishermen and one corpse was discovered by Japanese police near Oki Island, Shimane Prefecture. The three fishermen were returned to North Korea.
The reason seems to be that North Korean fishermen are under pressure to go further out to sea in fishing boats made for shallow waters. A diplomatic source said, “After Kim Jong-un came into power, he stressed the importance of earning foreign currency, which forced more and more fishermen to go farther out to fish despite the danger.”
2009 Chosun.com