8 men claiming to be from N. Korea held in northeastern Japan

November 24, 2017

Tokyo- Police have held in protective custody eight men who claimed to have come from North Korea in the city of Yurihonjo, Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, it was learned Friday.

A wooden boat was found on the shore of the city facing the Sea of Japan, according to Akita prefectural police.

The men told the police that they came from North Korea for fishing and that the boat washed ashore after having mechanical trouble, Hachiro Okonogi, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, said at a press conference in Tokyo.

According to Okonogi and other sources, the police took them into custody in the city after receiving an emergency call on Thursday night saying there were suspicious people at a marina.

The Akita police said the men seemed to be healthy and speaking Korean.

The Japanese government is trying to confirm their nationalities as well as the possibility of illegal fishing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a separate news conference.

"Based on relevant laws and ordinances, the government will appropriately deal with the case," he said.

There have been a number of cases in which boats from North Korea were found off or on Japan's coastline.

In January 2012, a wooden boat with three men apparently in distress was spotted off the coast of the town of Okinoshima, Shimane Prefecture. As they said that they were not defectors from North Korea and wanted to return to their country, the government took procedures to send them back.

In September 2011, meanwhile, nine people fleeing from the reclusive country on a small boat were held in protective custody off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture and sent to South Korea later.

In other cases of defection from North Korea, a family of four and a group of 11 people were drifted to the town of Fukaura, Aomori Prefecture, in June 2007 and a harbor in Fukui Prefecture in January 1987, respectively, and all of them were transferred to the South. Jiji Press