Police revealed Wednesday that a boat with Korean (Hangul) language writing on the side washed ashore on Sado Island with five rotting bodies inside. The island is located just off Niigata Prefecture on Japan’s western coast, and while police say nationalities are still unknown, they confirm all the bodies were adult males. The only other things in the 13 meter (43 feet) long boat were small belongings and garbage. Five bodies were found on Wednesday morning in the boat washed up on rocks by a beach on the island, roughly over 10 meters (32.8 feet) long and weighing about 5 tons, on Sado island, northern Japan, Kyodo news reported.
It is still unknown how the passengers died, likewise the Korean writing on the boat is said to be unreadable. Police have said the only thing that is clear is that boat was adrift at sea for a long period of time. In the last few years, there have been several cases of North Koreans turning up in that area off Japan’s coast after fleeing the isolated communist country. Nine refugees, consisting of three men, three women, and three children, were found by the Japan Coast Guard in September 2011 after being at sea for 5 days. The group later resettled in South Korea.
The police and the Japan Coast Guard are seeking to identify the bodies of what appear to be adults and are probing how the boat drifted onto the beach.
In January of this year, three more North Koreans were found at sea, along with the body of another passenger who had died of hypothermia. They were also thought to be defectors trying to escape North Korea’s food shortages and poverty, but they turned out to be fishermen whose boat engine died and drifted out to sea. They were eventually repatriated at their own request.
Monday 28 November 2012
http://japandailypress.com/decomposing-bodies-of-five-men-found-in-korean-marked-boat-off-japans-coast-2819036
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