North Korea's Ghost Ships | 101 East
A growing number of North Korean fishing boats are washing up on the shores of Japan.
Sometimes there are survivors but often they carry a tragic cargo of corpses from the so-called "Hermit Kingdom".
Shizuo Sato recalls the day he made a grim discovery on Japan's west coast.
"We've known of many ghost ships found in this area," he says. "We all thought that if it's a dead body, it must be a North Korean."
These mysterious "ghost ships" are a diplomatic, logistical and financial nightmare for Japan, costing millions of dollars in police investigations, clean-up operations and repatriation of survivors and human remains.
In December 2017, eight North Korean fishermen washed up dead on Japan's Oga peninsula.
The remains of the fishermen are still in limbo. For now, they are being kept at a temple by a local monk, Ryosen Kojima.
"The eight bodies were cremated and the ashes are temporarily kept here," says Ryosen. "I imagine the crews died with unimaginable fear."
While analysts debate what the ghost ships may reveal about the secretive nation, in Japan, the shipwrecks remind some of a dark past when North Korean spies abducted Japanese citizens.
"We've been warned not to get too close to North Korean ships, as they might do something bad to us," says Ken Honma, a fisherman who spends nine months of each year in a fishing zone about 500 kilometres (311 miles) from the North Korean port city of Chongjin.
101 East investigates North Korea's ghost ships.
- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
Видео North Korea's Ghost Ships | 101 East канала Al Jazeera English
Sometimes there are survivors but often they carry a tragic cargo of corpses from the so-called "Hermit Kingdom".
Shizuo Sato recalls the day he made a grim discovery on Japan's west coast.
"We've known of many ghost ships found in this area," he says. "We all thought that if it's a dead body, it must be a North Korean."
These mysterious "ghost ships" are a diplomatic, logistical and financial nightmare for Japan, costing millions of dollars in police investigations, clean-up operations and repatriation of survivors and human remains.
In December 2017, eight North Korean fishermen washed up dead on Japan's Oga peninsula.
The remains of the fishermen are still in limbo. For now, they are being kept at a temple by a local monk, Ryosen Kojima.
"The eight bodies were cremated and the ashes are temporarily kept here," says Ryosen. "I imagine the crews died with unimaginable fear."
While analysts debate what the ghost ships may reveal about the secretive nation, in Japan, the shipwrecks remind some of a dark past when North Korean spies abducted Japanese citizens.
"We've been warned not to get too close to North Korean ships, as they might do something bad to us," says Ken Honma, a fisherman who spends nine months of each year in a fishing zone about 500 kilometres (311 miles) from the North Korean port city of Chongjin.
101 East investigates North Korea's ghost ships.
- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
Видео North Korea's Ghost Ships | 101 East канала Al Jazeera English
Показать
Комментарии отсутствуют
Информация о видео
Другие видео канала
Escaping North Korea: The Painful Price of Freedom | North Korean Escapee DocumentaryInvestigating how North Korean fishermen plunder foreign waters | Reporters Plus • FRANCE 24 English🇰🇵 North Korea’s Secret Money | 101 East🔴 Al Jazeera English | LiveCambodia's Casino Gamble | 101 EastRisking It All: Fishing In Foreign Waters (Extreme Fishing Documentary) | Real WildOn Holiday in North Korea: An Exclusive Look Inside a Brutal Dictatorship | Travel DocumentaryAbducted By North Korea (North Korea Documentary) | Real StoriesHow a Mysterious Ship Helps North Korea Evade Oil Sanctions | Visual InvestigationsWorld's Biggest Containership | Mega Transports | Free DocumentaryThe mystery of North Korean "ghost ships" | Undercover Asia | Full Episode🇮🇩 Indonesia: Where There's Smoke | 101 East🇮🇳 India: Last of the Tigers | 101 EastRussia extends military mission in Belarus indefinitelyWhat was so scary about Tesla’s ideas? | DecodedCycling North Korea - The Hermit Kingdom From Behind HandlebarsThe Return of East Timor's Children | 101 EastThe Spy in Your Phone | Al Jazeera WorldHow Defectors Escape North Korea - The Defector - Politics Documentary