Suspected North Korean defectors found off Japanese coast - The Guardian

The boat was towed to shore by the Japanese coastguard. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

Coastguard officials in Japan are questioning nine suspected North Korean defectors after they were found drifting off the country's west coast, on Tuesday morning.

The group – three men, three women and three young children – were found by a coastguard helicopter 15 miles off the Noto peninsula, in Ishikawa prefecture, after a tip-off from local fishermen.

They were collected by a coastguard vessel and taken to Kanazawa for questioning. Their eight-metre boat bore Korean characters along its sides and was stocked with rice and pickled vegetables, Japanese media reports said.

A man claiming to represent the group told local media that they had come from North Korea and had intended to travel to South Korea. The man reportedly described himself as a member of the Korean People's army, and said the eight other people on board were his relatives.

They were fortunate to have survived the long trip east across the Japan Sea. The boat was not equipped with navigation equipment and none of the group wore a life jacket.

Japan is an unusual destination for North Koreans hoping to flee repression and poverty in the communist state. The coastguard has records of two other cases: in 2006, when four men and women drifted to the coast of northern Japan; and in 1987, when a family of 11 ended up on the country's west coast.

Most would-be defectors cross the border into China or drift across the Yellow Sea maritime border dividing North and South Korea. Cross-border tensions escalated this year after four of 31 North Koreans who sailed into South Korean waters refused to return home.

The South Korean foreign ministry said it expected Japanese authorities to share the results of its investigation. An official in Seoul told the Yonhap news agency: "If they are confirmed to be North Korean defectors and have a clear desire to come to South Korea, we will take all necessary measures in accordance with the law on handling defectors."

More than 21,000 North Korean defectors have entered the South since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean war, according to the unification ministry in Seoul.

The boat's discovery so close to the Japanese coast prompted speculation that it may have continued to drift eastwards after failing to make landfall in South Korea.

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Possible NKorean defectors found off Japan coast (AP)

By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA, Associated Press Tomoko A. Hosaka, Associated Press – Tue Sep 13, 4:30 am ET

TOKYO – Nine people who say they are from North Korea arrived Tuesday in a black wooden boat off the western Japanese coast in what authorities suspect is a rare defection from the communist nation to Japan.

A fisherman contacted authorities after spotting the unfamiliar vessel in waters near the Noto peninsula, which juts into the Sea of Japan.

The three men, three women and three boys found on the black wooden boat told Japanese coast guard officials they came from North Korea and wanted to go to South Korea. No one required immediate medical attention.

The vessel is about 26-feet (8-meters) -long and marked with Korean characters, said Daisuke Takahashi, a spokesman with the Japan Coast Guard.

The coast guard said the nine said they departed North Korea last Thursday. Although the boat's engine was functioning when found, the group had run low on rations. The coast guard found a small amount of rice, some pickled vegetables and snacks. The group had run out of drinking water.

The coast guard said it was towing the boat to the port in Kanazawa, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west of Tokyo, where it will investigate further.

North Korean defectors typically cross over the North's porous border with China or drift in boats over the Yellow Sea dividing line between North and South Korea, but they rarely come as far as Japan.

In 2007, a family of four North Korean defectors — a couple and two adult sons — traveled in an open boat for six days to reach northern Japan. They were the first defectors from the country to arrive by boat in Japan in 20 years.

The four said they were trying to escape extreme poverty and asked for asylum in South Korea, where they were sent.

In 1987, 11 crew members of a North Korean ship arrived at a port in western Japan and later defected to South Korea via Taiwan.

Defections are a sensitive matter between the Koreas, which are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Earlier this year, North Korea lashed out at the South when four of 31 North Koreans on a boat that drifted into southern waters refused to return home. The North said the four were held against their will.

More than 21,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War, according to South Korean government data.

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Associated Press writers Malcolm Foster in Tokyo and Foster Klug in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

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Follow Tomoko A. Hosaka on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomokohosaka

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