Smuggling Ship Buried a Heap of Corpses at Sea

The crew of the smuggling ship that carried 60 Chinese stowaways sent away 26 corpses to the ocean, who died from suffocation, in the sea near Sori Island, Nam-Myun, Yeosu City, Jeonnam Province, around 4 a.m. yesterday.

Yeosu Maritime Police disclosed this during the investigation of 34 arrested Chinese stowaways, 23 Han people and 11 Chosun people, who landed on Daekyong Island, Kyongho-Dong, Yeosu City. The police dispatched 5 patrol boats to the see near Sori Island and are searching for the corpses.

The police immediately arrested 8 crew members of the 7th Taechangho (Captain Lee Pan-Gun, 43), a 67 ton stow-net fisher-boat, which has Yeosu registry. They confessed, ``We cast away the corpses of the suffocated Chinese at sea of 10 mile south of Sori Island, Nam-Myun, Yeosu City, around 4 a.m. yeaterday.``

Captain Lee said, ``I took over 60 Chinese stowaways from a Chinese wooden ship (20 ton) in the international waters of the south of Jeju Island on Saturday early morning and shipped them in the two fish containers of the lower deck of the ship. When I checked them yesterday afternoon, all 26 people in one container were found dead.``

Judging that the Chinese died from suffocation in the closed container, the maritime police decided to order for the arrest warrants of the 8 crew members on suspicion of accidental homicide and of abandonment of dead bodies.

The crew said that, by transferring the stowaways into a small fishing boat, they dropped off the 34 survivors, including Mr. Wang (34, Fujian Province), on Daekyong Island, Kyongho-Dong, Yeosu City, around 3 a.m. yesterday, before they cast away the corpses.

However, some arrested survivors testified that the crew put them on shore after they thrown away the corpses.

The Chinese departed from Ningbo Port in Zhejiang Province on a 20 ton fishing boat, Oct. 1st.

Kim Kwon goqud@donga.com