North Korea mystery as fishermen wash up on Japan's shore
EIGHT “suspicious” North Korean fishermen have washed ashore on the coast of northern Japan, police reported.
GETTY
A desperate investigation was launched when the men were found at Yurihonjo city's marina on Thursday.
They were found after the police received a call that suspicious men were standing around at the seaside in Yurihonjo town.
Police found a wooden boat at a nearby marina.
The men identified themselves as North Koreans who were fishing before the boat broke down and washed ashore.
Related articles
Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission Hachiro Okonogo said they drifted to the northeast of Japan "after their ship experienced troubles".
An investigation is underway including the possibility of illegal fishing.
A week earlier, the Japanese Coast Guard rescued three North Korean men from a capsized fishing boat off Japan’s northern coast.
Shock footage stills of North Korean defector escaping across border
Wed, November 22, 2017Dramatic footage of a North Korean soldier's defection released on November 22 showed him racing across the border under fire from former comrades, and then being hauled to safety by South Korean troops. The defector, who ran across the border at the Panmunjom truce village on November 13, was shot at least four times and has been recovering in a South Korean hospital
A North Korean Korean People's Army (KPA) defector driving along a road leading to the truce village of Panmunjom
They were transferred hours later to another North Korean vessel that was to return home.
Japan regularly sees North Korean fishing boats straying into its territory and its coastguard has occasionally had to rescue them.
Wreckage believed to be North Korean boats regularly washes ashore in northern Japan during winter due to seasonal winds.
'Donald Trump' and 'Kim Jong-un' face-off amid North Korea nuclear threat
Sun, November 19, 2017About 700 demonstrators protested in Berlin, Germany against the current escalation of threat of nuclear attack between the United States of America and North Korea
An activist pretends to punch another wearing a mask of U.S. President Donald Trump next to a model of a nuclear rocket
In 2015, a wooden boat drifted ashore in another coaster town in Akita.
Skeletal remains of two men were found, one inside the vessel and another one nearby.
Three North Korean boats with 10 bodies inside also washed up on the Noto Peninsula.
GETTY
This year, more than a dozen cases of wreckages were reported in three northern districts.
Defections by boat to Japan are not common given the distance, but it has happened before.
In 2011, nine North Koreans tried to sail to South Korea but ended up across the sea in Japan.
It is not known if the men intend to stay in Japan or return to North Korea.
GETTY
Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic ties and they have a history of poor relations.
North Korea was invaded and occupied by Japan in 1910 and ended at the conclusion of the Second World War.
Tensions are running high between the two nations since North Korea has been conducting a series of missile and nuclear tests.
In September, the hermit kingdom fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles over Japan in the space of a month.
