Japan coast guard: Boat likely from North Korea contained 4 corpses

AOMORI (TR) – Following a series of discoveries of bodies believed to be from North Korea, a wooden boat seen adrift last week off the coast of Aomori Prefecture contained four corpses, coast guard officials announced on Sunday, reports NHK (Dec. 6).

On Wednesday, the boat, which measures approximately 12.5 meters long and 3.6 meters wide, was first seen capsized in the Tsugaru Strait off the coast of the village Sai.

The Aomori Coast Guard Office on Sunday pulled the vessel ashore and discovered the four bodies inside. The bodies were found along with a fishing net. The sex and age of the bodies are unknown.

According to the coast guard, the boat is similar in type to another vessel that contained Korean writing and drifted ashore in the same general area two months ago.

The boat searched on Sunday did not contain any Korean writing. However, it is not of a type found in Japan, coast guard officials said.

The incident follows the discovery of at least 30 bodies inside boats adrift in prefectures off the Sea of Japan since October.