North Korean ‘ghost boat’ carrying human heads and skeletons washes up in Japan
A NORTH Korean “ghost boat” carrying two human heads and five skeletons washed ashore on a Japanese island today, authorities said.
Police found the rotting remains in a wooden vessel suspected to be from the secretive rogue state on the coast of Sado island at 9.30am local time.
Officials found the heads of two persons, as well as five bodies, a Coast Guard official said, adding that the cause of death is under investigation.
He could not confirm whether the heads belonged to the five bodies or were from two other people.
The wooden boat had letters and numbers written in Korean on its outside, he added.
A police officer first spotted the boat on Friday afternoon but authorities waited until today before entering it due to unstable weather.
The discovery marks the second time since last month that a wooden boat has washed up on the shores of Sado island, the official said.
HUMAN HEADS ON BOAT
Dozens of North Korean fishing vessels wash up on Japan's western coast every year, as desperate defectors take to the waves in a bid to escape the despotic regime.
Sometimes their occupants have already died at sea, with skeletons and rotten corpses ending up in Japan's fishing ports in what local media have dubbed ‘ghost ships’.
In late 2015, at least 14 weathered vessels with almost two dozen bodies reached Japanese shores or were found floating in regional waters.
Sky News reported that 44 boats full of dead people had washed up in 2016 alone.
Relations between North Korea – a war-mongering diplomatic basket case – and its neighbours have been strained for decades.
Dictator Kim Jong-un has given the US until the end of the year to propose new concessions in talks over his country's nuclear arsenal and reducing tensions.
Also on Friday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK sent a news bulletin that incorrectly reported North Korea had launched a missile that fell into waters east of the Japanese archipelago.
The media outlet later issued an apology explaining it was a media training alert.
Ghost boats sign Kim 'is losing grip on power'
- The rising number of 'ghost ships' washing up in Japan are a sign tyrant Kim Jong-un is losing his grip on power, experts said last year.
- In January 2018, eight bodies were recovered from a wrecked North Korean vessel which had washed ashore in Kanazawa.
- The number of ghost ships - those discovered with no surviving crew - reached 104 in 2017 which is the highest since records began.
- And experts believe that's a clear sign that national security is 'disintegrating' under Kim as the international community turns the screw.
- One told that the sheer number of these boats indicate the despot's weakening grip over his country and people.
- Hazel Smith, Professorial Research Associate at London's School of African and Oriental Studies, said: "Security is disintegrating.
- "There was always an incentive for people to get hold of a boat to try to fish and come back and sell it and make some money, but security was always extremely tight.
- "You had mined beaches, you had surveillance on the coast, so the fact that this is happening is not a surprise economically — people are taking the opportunities while they can.
- "What it shows also is the disintegration of the state's ability to stop people going out in boats."