Eight men died on this 40-foot boat that washed ashore here on the Oga peninsula along Japan’s northwestern coast late last month. The Coast Guard found their bodies, some reduced almost to skeletons, on the boat, which is believed to have come from North Korea... The boat that landed on Miyazawa Beach in Akita prefecture was just one of 76 fishing vessels that have ended up on Japanese shores since the beginning of the year, 28 of them in November alone....
“I am wondering why so many of these have all of a sudden come in such a short time,” said Kazuko Komatsu, 66, who lives in a house close to the marina in Yurihonjo. North Korea, she said, “is a mysterious country. We don’t know so much. I don’t know if they are coming here to escape or whether they just accidentally drifted here.”...
“Are they spies?” read a headline in the Akita Sakigake Shimpo, a local newspaper....
Ryosen Kojima, 62, [a priest at a Zen temple in Oga, which takes in ashes of these washed-up dead, said] “They are humans just like us... But they have no one to look after their ashes. Since they were born into this world... they must have parents and families. I feel so sorry for them.”
December 7, 2017
"Ghostly Boats Carry North Korean Crews, Dead and Alive, to Japan."
The NYT reports.
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18 comments:
We trained North Korean leadership that if they launched missiles they would receive money and goods in trade. Now that it's not working as well as before the country is starving.
They were skeletons before they got on the boat.
question whether they're spies is actually very, very legit
All hail communist revolutions.
>question whether they're spies is actually very, very legit
Agreed. I could imagine that they have run out of people who can navigate.
Communism, since it goes against human nature, requires an all-powerful state to enforce it. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's happened so many times.
Witness the cost of losing Amendments 1 & 2. While some places such as college campuses have little respect and even animus toward both, these rights are strong in most of our nation. Electing Trump strengthened both, especially an independent press. They suddenly found their purpose, although unhinged, they are at least asking questions again. The North Korean people need a little freedom, something many American have lost appreciation for.
The spy thing is doubtful. With the notable exception of Nazi Germany, totalitarian countries are usually very competent at spying. This sounds like people driven by famine. I think the Nork dam is going to burst soon, and not in a warlike way. Hopefully the US and PRC and ROK have contingency plans for dealing with that massive humanitarian crisis.
tds said...
question whether they're spies is actually very, very legit
12/7/17, 7:50 AM
Not at all, if they were spies they would have had food.
Oh, and yes, we should definitely do MAD with, and accept as a world peer, a country that does this.
Rational actors.
Japan may not be a safe haven for them either, with their easy reach for NK missies. Poor Japan and poor North Korean people.
It's hell on earth for the North Korean people. The first responsibility for doing something lies with South Korea and China. Next, the UN. So that's why it's hell on earth for North Korea. But not for much longer.
I've heard that Lil Kim has ordered his fishermen to go farther afield in hopes of finding more fish, including the sea of japan. These boats, many of them, are a result of that edict.
North Korea is truly horrible. And yet, I've seen numerous, numerous leftists on various sites argue that they are better than the US because Trump and America is evil while NK, apparently, is not.
How some leftists are not just committed is beyond me.
--Vance
Unknown said...
"I've heard that Lil Kim has ordered his fishermen to go farther afield in hopes of finding more fish, including the sea of japan. These boats, many of them, are a result of that edict."
I read that. And I thought,"If you have a boat, and they'll let you sail away on it, why on Earth would you go back to North Korea?". Presumably, their families are hostages. In which case, when the men did not return, the women and children were sent to the camps.
tim in vermont asserts: Communism, since it goes against human nature, requires an all-powerful state to enforce it.
An obvious truth but seldom so succinctly stated.
Cracker opines: This sounds like people driven by famine. I think the Nork dam is going to burst soon, and not in a warlike way. Hopefully the US and PRC and ROK have contingency plans for dealing with that massive humanitarian crisis.
I agree. The rhetoric of late has seeped into the North Korean consciousness and emboldened at least some of the serfs.
They are starving to death in North Korea.
North Korea is truly horrible. And yet, I've seen numerous, numerous leftists on various sites argue that they are better than the US because Trump and America is evil while NK, apparently, is not.
Nonsense, Cook only says the US is *just as bad.*
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