Mysterious bodies turn up on ghost ship
It might sound like a scene out of Moby Dick, but mysterious bodies have turned up on a “ghost ship”, which washed up off the northern coast of Japan this week.
And while the emergence of the ship is still shrouded in mystery, a small detail hidden amongst the bodies has offered a clue to the origin of this skeleton-filled vessel.
Senior local police official Hideaki Sakyo told AFP while there was little to identify the bodies by, boxes of North Korean tobacco and life jackets with figures in Korean script suggest the boat could’ve been populated by would-be defectors.
That said, there’s still no hard and fast proof.
“Nothing else was found on the beach nearby, and so far we haven’t found anything (suggesting they may be defectors),” a Japanese coastguard spokeswoman told AFP.
North Korean fishing vessels washing up on Japan’s coast isn’t an entirely uncommon occurrence, especially during winter where fishermen contend with high winds.
North Korean fisherman often venture far and deep on government orders, and the old, poorly equipped vessels are prone to issues. Once something goes wrong, there are few rescue options available for people on the boat.
Earlier this month a North Korean solider who managed to defect into the South made headlines after managing to cross the demilitarised zone (DMZ) despite being shot at five times.
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Hero image credit: Twitter / The Independant