Local Govts Troubled by Apparent N. Korean Wooden Boats

December 20, 2017

Tokyo- With a record number of wooden boats apparently from North Korea having drifted to Japan this year, local governments in northeastern Japan are busy dealing with the bodies of their crews and disposing of the vessels.

The number of such vessels that have been found drifting in the Sea of Japan, which separates Japan and the Korean Peninsula, or washed up on the Japanese coast stood at 89 this year as of noonon Dec. 15, topping the highest annual figure since comparable data became available in 2013, according to the Japan Coast Guard. Bodies found in or near the boats totaled 25, it also said.

Normally, deserted boats of unknown owners are dismantled, and unidentified bodies are cremated as those without relatives.

But some local governments keep the cremains in consideration of potential future requests for their return. The North Korean side has already lodged such a request.

In the city of Oga in Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, 10 dead bodies have been found since Nov. 27.

The Oga city government keeps the cremains with related information, including the number of the boat in which eight of them were found, so it can return them to North Korea in the future.

In the case of the eight bodies, the North Korean side requested the return of the cremains via the Japanese Red Cross Society on Dec. 6. The city government plans to meet the request.

The Oga government returned the cremains of a person cast ashore on a beach in the city to North Korea in fiscal 2013.

"All we can do is wait for contact from the Japanese Red Cross or others because there are no diplomatic relations" between Japan and North Korea, an official of the city government said.

The city returns cremains when it can approximate the identity of the cremated individual, the official added.

The government of Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, south of Akita, also deals with such dead bodies with their potential future return in mind.

Five bodies were found on a beach in the city between Dec. 4 and Friday. Two of them wore badges depicting the late Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea.

The Tsuruoka government could not confirm their identities or nationalities. But it plans to keep their cremains together with the badges, separately from the ashes of those without relatives.

Many municipalities dispose of wooden boats as marine debris.

The Yamagata prefectural government on Dec. 14 dismantled a wooden boat that washed ashore on a beach in Tsuruoka on Nov. 21.

The Yamagata government kept the boat at the location where it was found for about two weeks, with a notice calling on the owner to make contact with the manager of the beach. Nobody contacted the manager.

It is expected to cost some 700,000 yen to dispose of the boat. Some 80 pct of the cost will be covered by subsidies from the Environment Ministry. Jiji Press