The Japanese police say they have found the remains of at least five people in a "ghost ship". She suspects that the wooden boat comes from North Korea.
The boat was washed up on the island of Sado off the west coast of Japan. Inside were five bodies and the heads of two people, a police spokesman said. It is still unclear whether the heads belonged to the five people found or to other people. The cause of death would now be investigated.
Korean characters and numbers have been discovered on the outside of the boat, the police spokesman said. Since November it has been the second wooden boat washed up on the island.
According to Japanese media reports, the bodies found were "partially skeletonized". This could indicate that the boat had been on the water for a long time.
North Korean fishermen keep going out
For years, fishing boats have been pulled ashore on the coast of Japan, especially in the winter months, when the weather is often stormy. The police find bodies in many of them.
In the Sea of Japan, which also has Japan and South Korea alongside North Korea and Russia, there are repeated disputes about fishing rights. Pyongyang apparently is pushing its fishermen to go further and further out to sea in the hope of catching more. Japan has patrolled ships in the area because of repeated poaching by North Korean fishermen in the past.
It was only in October that a North Korean fishing boat sank off Japan, and rescue workers were able to save around 60 North Korean seafarers from the sea. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially protested in North Korea after a ship accident. The fishing boat had entered the exclusive economic zone of Japan without permission and sank there after the collision with the Japanese patrol boat.
