Drifting North Korean Fishing Boat in East Sea Received by North Korea Yesterday

JCS Notifies North Korea of Situation Through UN Command

A North Korean vessel that drifted near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the East Sea was discovered by our navy on the 29th and requested rescue, and it is known that the North took over the vessel late that night.

The photo shows a small North Korean wooden boat salvaged on the 24th [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to military sources on the 30th, the North pulled the vessel, which had lost its direction and was drifting about 3 km north of the NLL, 200 km east of Jejin Port, Goseong-gun, Gangwon Province, late the previous night.

Earlier, our navy's maritime patrol aircraft spotted the North Korean vessel around 2:16 p.m. the previous day in the East Sea, signaling for rescue by waving a white object toward the air. The vessel was estimated to be a small merchant ship about 10 meters long and was reported not to be a military ship. When our dispatched patrol ship sent a rubber boat across the NLL to approach the fishing vessel, the people on board the distressed ship expressed that they had been drifting for 10 days and hoped to return to the North.

The navy provided them with emergency rations such as cup rice, chocolate bars, Choco Pie, and bottled water on humanitarian grounds. Additionally, the Joint Chiefs of Staff notified the United Nations Command and the international maritime communication network to enable the North to rescue the distressed vessel. The Joint Chiefs informed the North through the UN Command because since April 7, the North had unilaterally cut off military communication lines and the inter-Korean joint liaison office channels, making it impossible to send notifications. Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs announced the distress of the North Korean vessel to the media around 5:40 p.m., about three hours after becoming aware of the situation.

A military official explained, "Although the NLL was temporarily crossed for humanitarian purposes, the North Korean military could have misunderstood this and caused a military clash, so we promptly disclosed the related facts to the media. We also clarified that the occupants of the North Korean vessel had no intention to defect, so they would not be punished after returning to the North." It is reported that the North did not respond through the UN Command until late the previous night.