Over the past two months, at least eight wooden boats
have been found in the Sea of Japan on or near the coast, carrying a chilling
cargo -- the decaying bodies of 20 people, Japan's coast guard said
All of the bodies were badly decomposed and "partially
skeletonized" -- two were found without heads -- and one boat contained
six skulls, the coast guard said. The first boat was found in October, then a
series of boats in late November.
Coast guard officials are now trying to unravel the
riddle of where these ghostly boats came from and what happened to those on
board.
Their best guess so far is that the ships are from North
Korea.
One clue pointing that direction is Korean lettering on
the hull of a boat containing 10 decomposing bodies, one of three boats which
were found adrift off the city of Wajima on the west coast of Japan on November
20.
The writing said "Korean People's Army," the
name of North Korea's military defense forces, the coast guard said.
Another clue could come from a tattered scrap of cloth
found on one of the boats, which looks like it could be from a North Korean
national flag, Japan's biggest broadcaster NHK reported.
"There's no doubt that these boats are North
Korean," John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Asia program at the Chatham
House policy institute, told CNN after looking at pictures of the boats.
Wright added that the lettering on the boats he looked at
is Korean -- or Hangul -- text and the "primitive" boats and
reference to the Korean People's Army makes it "very logical" to
assume the boats are from North Korea.
Yoshihiko Yamada, a maritime expert, told NHK that the
vessels bear a "striking resemblance" to those used by defectors from
North Korea.
He gave a possible explanation for the fleet and its
deathly crew arriving on Japan's shores: "(The boats) are made of wood and
are old and heavy. They can't travel very fast and the engines are not powerful
enough to turn the ships against the currents."
Some in the Japanese media, including NHK, have also
speculated that the vessels could be fishing boats that strayed off course.
Wright believes it is more likely to be people trying to
flee the regime, although he added that it's impossible to be sure with the
limited information available.
"What we do know is that for those people living
outside of (North Korean capital) Pyongyang ... life remains extraordinarily
hard, and it may be an economic necessity as much as a desire for political
freedom (that is) encouraging some people in the North to try and leave the
country."
He added that defectors could be taking the more
dangerous route across the Sea of Japan because traditional routes, like
crossing the border into China, are now policed and could be harder to use.
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