Hwacheon ice fishing festival Visitors go ice fishing on a frozen river on the eighth day of the annual Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival in Hwacheon in Gangwon Province, about 90 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Jan. 13, 2024, in this photo provided by Hwacheon county. The cumulative number of visitors surpassed 500,000 as of this day, according to the county. (Yonhap)
It is not looking good for the four people still missing from this sunken fishing boat:
A search is under way in waters off the southwestern island of Daebichi on Feb. 5, 2023, a day after a 24-ton fishing boat overturned, leaving nine people missing. (Yonhap)
Rescuers searching a 24-ton fishing boat that capsized off the southwestern coast found five missing crew members dead inside the shipwreck Monday, Coast Guard officials said.
Seawater started to flood the ship’s engine room, causing the vessel, the Cheongbo, to overturn at 11:19 p.m. Saturday in waters 16.6 kilometers west of the uninhabited island of Daebichi that lies some 20 km from the southwestern county of Sinan.
The sinking had left nine of the 12 people, including three foreign nationals, on board the ship missing, while the other three were rescued by another boat at the scene.
Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival Many people enjoy fishing at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, on Jan. 8, 2023, amid eased virus curbs. The festival was not held in the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Yonhap)
Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice FestivalVisitors to the 2020 Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival enjoy fishing on a frozen river in the Gangwon Province county of Hwacheon, about 120 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes news that the Russians are holding 80 North Koreans for illegal fishing in Russian waters:
Russia says the ships were engaged in illegal fishing off its coast, and that one of the vessels launched an “armed attack”.
Three Russian border guards were reportedly wounded in a clash.
North Korea has yet to comment on the incident, but Russia’s Foreign Ministry has expressed “serious concern” and summoned the country’s top diplomat.
A spokesperson for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said the two schooners were accompanied by 11 motorboats and were spotted poaching near the Yamato Bank, which lies between the Korean Peninsula, Russia and Japan.
Russia says they were caught in its Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from its coast.
Foreign tourists show off a trout that they caught on a frozen river in Hongcheon, some 100 kilometers east of Seoul, on Jan. 5, 2018, the opening day of an annual trout fishing festival. (Yonhap)
This return of the ROK fishing vessel by the Kim regime appears to have happened so rapidly because of the Vietnamese crew members on board at the fact the ROK has returned various North Korean fishing ships that strayed into South Korean waters when requested:
A fisherman sits on his boat in a small port on the island of Baengnyeong, which lies on the South Korean side of the Northern Limit Line, in the Yellow Sea, April 11, 2014.
North Korea sent back a South Korean fishing boat and its crew that Pyongyang says were detained for crossing the eastern sea border between the rivals.
While the North’s state media said the decision was based on humanitarian grounds, experts said it wasn’t clear whether the repatriation reflected intentions to improve relations with the South amid heightened animosity over Pyongyang’s expanding nuclear program.
The boat’s 10 crew members included not only South Koreans, but also three Vietnamese fishermen, which might have influenced the North’s decision for a quick repatriation, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification.
Fishermen questioned
Hours after announcing the repatriation plans through the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea sent back the boat and fishermen in designated waters off the peninsula’s eastern coast Friday evening. The fishermen, who arrived at the South Korean port of Sokcho late Friday, appeared to be in good health, a South Korean coast guard official said.
The fishermen will be questioned by South Korean authorities over the circumstances of their detention and their experience in the North, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing office rules. The fishermen didn’t leave the ship as officials searched the vessel for nearly two hours in Sokcho before they were escorted to another port in nearby Uljin, where they might be questioned. [Voice of America]
Lee Jung-hyun, head of South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party, looks at various weapons used by Chinese fishermen against the South Korean coast guard’s crackdowns on their illegal fishing inside the South Korean waters during a visit to the Coast Guard in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 21, 2016. (Yonhap)
A Chinese boat carrying the North Korean flag enters the dock of the Korean Coast Guard in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 18, 2016. The boat was seized by the coast guard the previous day, while catching fish illegally after crossing a western inter-Korean maritime border into the South Korean side. Cash-strapped North Korea has reportedly sold the rights to its western territorial waters to Chinese fishermen. Chinese illegal fishing is a chronic headache to South Korea. (Yonhap)
