Television footage from a pier in the city of Yurihonjo on Japan’s northwestern coast showed a wooden boat rigged with bare light bulbs, used to attract fish and squid.
A group of eight fishermen claiming to be from North Korea washed up in northern Japan after drifting there when their wooden vessel developed problems, authorities said today.
Television footage from a pier in the city of Yurihonjo on Japan’s northwestern coast showed a wooden boat rigged with bare light bulbs, used to attract fish and squid.
«We understand that the eight individuals are reporting that they came from North Korea for fishing, but drifted there after their ship experienced (mechanical) troubles,» said Hachiro Okonogi, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission.
Local police told AFP they were alerted about the group early today and took them into custody.
The men were able to walk unaided, according to national broadcaster NHK.
Dozens of North Korean fishing vessels wash up on Japan’s Sea of Japan coast every year.
Sometimes their occupants have already died at sea, with their vessels delivering headless skeletons and rotten corpses to Japan’s fishing ports, with media occasionally calling them «ghost ships.
