A Suspicious North Korean Ship Sunk after an Exchange of Fire with Japanese Patrol Boats

A suspicious fishing vessel, which appeared to be a North Korean spy ship, sunk at the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the East China Sea, 390 km northwest of Amami Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, at 10 pm on Saturday, after an exchange of fire with the Japanese Maritime Defense Agency`s patrol boats

Although 15 crewmembers of the suspicious ship jumped into sea wearing life jackets, their whereabouts are unknown as of Sunday.

In relation to this, the Japanese Maritime Defense Agency (JMDA) announced that Japanese patrol boats found three dead men`s bodies, and the Korean characters were written on the life jacket of one of them. During the exchange of fire, two Japanese maritime officers were wounded by the automatic gunshots fired by two crewmembers of the suspicious ship.

This is the first time Japan fired machine gun at a suspicious ship which the Japanese boat was in pursuit since the end of the war. Japan fired automatic rifle at a ship as a self-defense, which was suspected of being an USSR spy ship, in sea front of the Hokkaido in 1953.

The Japanese government said that the suspicious ship was highly likely to be a North Korean spy ship since it was similar to the North Korean spy ship which intruded Nodo peninsula in March 1999, its navigation skill was excellent, and it used 13 mm automatic gun. The Japanese government also said that it was highly likely that the crew scuttled it since gunshots from the patrol boats were not sufficient to sink the ship.

It was reported that `Eel 3705` was written on the port side of the ship. Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro ordered a thorough investigation on Sunday, and said regarding the shooting of the Japanese patrol boats, "There was no problem with the shooting since it was a self-defense." The suspicious ship was first found in waters 224 km northwest of the Amami Oshima Island at 6:20am on Saturday. When the ship was shut by 20 mm automatic guns following the warning shots at 4pm, fire took place on deck of the ship

ksshim@donga.com