Tag: fishing boats

Besides firing shots at the North Korean vessel maybe the ROK Coast Guard needs to start firing shots at these illegal Chinese fishing vessels as well:

A South Korean Navy vessel fired warning shots to drive out a North Korean patrol boat that crossed the western de facto maritime border last week, the South’s military said Sunday.

The North Korean boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in waters northeast of South Korea’s Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea on Saturday at 11 a.m., prompting the South Korean Navy to dispatch its Chamsuri-class patrol boat, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

After the North’s boat remained unresponsive to South Korea’s warning broadcasts and communication attempts, the South Korean vessel fired 10 warning shots with its autocannon and made the North Korean boat retreat.

The North Korean boat made the incursion as it was chasing a Chinese fishing boat, according to an informed source.

The JCS said there was contact between the South Korean vessel and the Chinese boat during the operation, and three of the South Korean sailors were sent to a hospital for injuries. One of them is known to have undergone surgery due to a fracture.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this illegal Chinese fishing boat rams a South Korean Coast Guard ship, injures sailors, and it is allowed to get away?

It is not looking good for the four people still missing from this sunken fishing boat:

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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Yet another example of the deadly violence at sea by a fishing boat captained by a Chinese national:

The men are helpless in the open water, clinging to floating debris, tossed by the rolling ocean waves. Several large fishing ships circle. None of the victims have life jackets, but no one makes a move to help. This isn’t a rescue.

A voice, off camera, shouts in Mandarin: “In the front, to the left! What are you doing?” Then: “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

Bullets spray the water around one flailing man. One round catches him. His body stills. Blood plumes in the blue ocean. Later, deckhands laugh and pose for photos.

Grainy video of the 2012 killings, which shows the systematic slaughter of at least four men in the Indian Ocean, has been circulating in the darker corners of the Internet for more than seven years. Now, authorities in Taiwan have arrested a suspect: a 43-year-old Chinese national whom they believe to be the man who shouted the orders to kill. And investigators are hoping he leads them to others.

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese captain is defending himself saying the people that 10-15 people shot at sea were pirates. Filipino crew member witnesses from his boat claim they were other fishermen that were shot. It is pretty clear that the intense competition for fish has turned the high seas into the Wild West.

NK's military went across the border to SK waters to kidnap SK citizens. Isn't it more appropriate for the Defense Min/prez to say/do something, rather than the Unification Min? And also something a tad bit stronger than "regret?" How about stop breaking down SK's defenses? https://t.co/k4bGVS4oH0

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 24, 2018

It looks like the fishing boats that don’t become “ghost ships” have become a major nuisance for the Japanese Coast Guard:

The Japan Coast Guard wages a constant battle to chase North Korean fishing boats from Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

From July, it began using water cannons on a regular basis to warn such boats to leave, but those efforts seem to have had little effect.

Instead, the number of boats operating in Japanese waters has increased, as well as those washing ashore, sometimes with dead crew members.

On Dec. 15, the coast guard released photos and video footage of its relentless campaign to rid Japanese waters of the unwelcome visitors.

The photos and videos released were taken between September and November in the Yamatotai fishing ground located about 400 kilometers west of Akita Prefecture’s Oga Peninsula.  [Asahi Shimbun]

You can read more at the link.

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:

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]

You can read more at the link.

The Pirates of the Yellow Sea were in action again this week and the ROK Coast Guard decided to use warning shots to disperse them:

South Korea’s Coast Guard said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into two Chinese fishing vessels that were captured with the help of a large gun after the fishing boats illegally operated in the country’s exclusive economic zone earlier this week.

The boats were brought into the western port city of Incheon Wednesday afternoon. They were captured a day earlier in the Yellow Sea after the Coast Guard fired a M60 machine gun in warning.

The authorities said the gun was used to fight off some 30 other fishing boats nearby that interfered in the Coast Guard’s attempt to seize the two vessels, with some even threatening to collide with the patrol boats. No Chinese fishermen were injured and nothing was damaged in the process, according to the authorities.

The decision to use the weapon was made to safeguard the officers who had already boarded the Chinese vessels, and would have been cut off if other Chinese vessels succeeded in ramming the patrol boats that took part in the seizure operations, the Coast Guard said.

The Chinese boats had iron bars installed around the hulls and the gates to the steering house were closed to avoid entry, the authorities said.

The Coast Guard said it will interrogate the two captains and some 20 other crew members from the vessels to find out the details of the illegal fishing. It will also look into their relation with the other boats that got away.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

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)