Tue Dec 1, 2015 | 4:51 AM EST
By Ju-min Park and Kaori Kaneko
SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) -
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 motorized craft and the coast guard 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 Bukyong National University in Busan.
"Kim Jong Un has been promoting the fisheries, which could explain why there are more fishing boats going out," he said.
"But North Korean boats perform really poorly,
with bad engines, risking lives to go far to catch more. Sometimes they drift and fishermen starve to death," he said.
DEADLY INCENTIVE SYSTEM
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 neighboring 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.
"Some of the boats belong to Korean People's
Army fishery stations, possibly operating to
catch sailfin sandfish," said An Chan-il, who
served in the North's army as a junior officer
before defecting to South Korea in 1979 and
now heads a private think tank on North Korea in Seoul.
"Kim Jong Un is pushing hard to produce more
fish. So these boats must have been stranded
after overworking," he said. 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.
"Modernization of the station will help it catch
more fish, (Kim) said, adding: The station
should be turned into an up-to-date fishery base which can be boasted of in the world, thus making our ongoing efforts produce good
results for the service persons and civilians," the Nov 25 report said.
Lee So-yeon, a North Korean army defector
who arrived in Seoul in 2008, said fish products are a key export for North Korea's army, which hires civilian fishermen to make money.
"North Korean army units and security agencies are running many businesses to earn foreign currency from mining gold to catching fish on the west and east coasts," said Lee.
Lee Jong-won, professor of international
relations at Japan's Waseda University, added: "The North is introducing an incentive system for producers. Fish is one of the main export products to China, which can be a way to get foreign currency…There is a possibility this incentive system led people to take more risks."
(Additional reporting by James Pearson in
SEOUL; Editing by Tony Munroe and Raju
Gopalakrishnan)
By Ju-min Park and Kaori Kaneko
SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) -
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 motorized craft and the coast guard 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 Bukyong National University in Busan.
"Kim Jong Un has been promoting the fisheries, which could explain why there are more fishing boats going out," he said.
"But North Korean boats perform really poorly,
with bad engines, risking lives to go far to catch more. Sometimes they drift and fishermen starve to death," he said.
DEADLY INCENTIVE SYSTEM
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 neighboring 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.
"Some of the boats belong to Korean People's
Army fishery stations, possibly operating to
catch sailfin sandfish," said An Chan-il, who
served in the North's army as a junior officer
before defecting to South Korea in 1979 and
now heads a private think tank on North Korea in Seoul.
"Kim Jong Un is pushing hard to produce more
fish. So these boats must have been stranded
after overworking," he said. 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.
"Modernization of the station will help it catch
more fish, (Kim) said, adding: The station
should be turned into an up-to-date fishery base which can be boasted of in the world, thus making our ongoing efforts produce good
results for the service persons and civilians," the Nov 25 report said.
Lee So-yeon, a North Korean army defector
who arrived in Seoul in 2008, said fish products are a key export for North Korea's army, which hires civilian fishermen to make money.
"North Korean army units and security agencies are running many businesses to earn foreign currency from mining gold to catching fish on the west and east coasts," said Lee.
Lee Jong-won, professor of international
relations at Japan's Waseda University, added: "The North is introducing an incentive system for producers. Fish is one of the main export products to China, which can be a way to get foreign currency…There is a possibility this incentive system led people to take more risks."
(Additional reporting by James Pearson in
SEOUL; Editing by Tony Munroe and Raju
Gopalakrishnan)
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