S. Korea Coast Guard Demands Japan Fishing Boat’s Operation Halt

November 22, 2018

Niigata--A Japan Coast Guard regional headquarters said Wednesday that a patrol ship from South Korea's coast guard issued a demand to a Japanese fishing boat in Japan's exclusive economic zone on Tuesday night that it stop operations and move to a different area.

The Japanese government lodged a protest to the South Korean side over the incident through diplomatic channels.

According to the Japan Coast Guard's ninth regional headquarters in the central city of Niigata, the patrol vessel from the Korea Coast Guard contacted the No. 85 Wakashio Maru by radio around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday (11:30 a.m. GMT) while the 184-ton squid fishing boat was operating in waters near an area called Yamatotai, at a point some 400 kilometers west-northwest of the Noto Peninsula in central Japan, within the Japanese EEZ in the Sea of Japan.

The patrol ship told the No. 85 Wakashio Maru, from the city of Nemuro in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, to stop operations and leave the area for a different location.

A Japan Coast Guard ship on a patrol mission monitored the radio contact and told the South Korean ship several times that the demand cannot be accepted.

But the South Korean patrol ship made no reply.

As the ship sailed close to the fishing boat after a while, the Japan Coast Guard patrol ship came between the two vessels and protected the No. 85 Wakashio Maru.

The South Korean ship then stopped approaching the fishing boat and left the area around 10:50 p.m.

No incident of this kind had happened before in areas around Yamatotai, which is known as a rich fishing ground, an official of the regional coast guard headquarters said, adding that it is unknown why the South Korean patrol ship approached the fishing boat.

In the area where the latest incident happened, the South Korean side has no authority to carry out policing activities against Japanese fishing boats, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry. Jiji Press