More corpses found on boat adrift in Sea of Japan

FUKUI (TR) – Three bodies have been retrieved from a boat found floating in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Fukui Prefecture on Sunday, two days after a similar discovery in waters off a neighboring prefecture, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Nov. 23).

At 8:20 a.m. on Sunday, a freighter alerted a maritime security patrol from Kyoto Prefecture about the boat, which was floating about 110 kilometers north-northwest of the town of Echizen. Three hours later, divers boarded the nine-meter-long wooden vessel and discovered the bodies.

The sex and nationality of the bodies are unknown.

On Friday, two wooden boats were found capsized off Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture. A total of 10 bodies and fishing nets were later discovered inside the vessels.

A third boat was found abandoned in nearby waters. The Japan Coast Guard suspects that all three vessels are from North Korea. Korean lettering on the hull of the third boat read, “The Korean People’s Army No. 325.”

The boat found on Sunday off Fukui did not contain markings in Japanese or Korean.