A study claims that hundreds of Chinese vessels known as "dark fleets" have been illegally fishing in North Korean waters. The boats have forced the displacement of local fishers to go to distant waters hazardous vessels and risk their lives, most of which have been dragged by powerful currents to the Japanese coast.
Illegal Chinese fishing operations
According to The Guardian, the report that was published in the Sciences Advances journal titled Global Fishing Watch (GFW), reveals that at least 900 Chinese vessels conducted illegal fishing operations in the region in 2017 and 700 were seen in 2018.
The study estimates the fishing vessels have acquired more than 160,000 metric tons of squid that equates to roughly $440 million.
The agency has stated the two-year illegal fishing operations was most likely a violation of sanctions by the UN that barred North Korea from making foreign currency with the use of providing fishing licenses to international vessels.
A senior data scientist at GFW, Jaeyoon Park, who is also the co-lead author of the study, said that the massive number of Chinese fishing vessels that conducted illegal operations accounted for nearly one-third of China's entire distant-water fishing fleet.
Park said the agency synthesized data that was gathered from multiple satellite sensors which are used to produce a vivid picture of the massive fishing activity in the region.
The activities have caused local fishermen to disappear, and the ones found in Japan's coasts became known as "ghost ships," as reported by CNN.
In 2017, it was found that more than 100 boats were discovered on the Japanese where 35 bodies were located. The numbers run contrary to the previous year where only 66 ships washed up on the shore.
For years, the origins and cause of the ghost ships and dead bodies they brought remained a mystery until the study by GFW, that showed a much more horrific and inhumane realization.
Despite the uncertainty of North Korea making massive finances from fishing operations from its own vessels within its territory, Pyongyang seems to have regained some of its lost cast by selling off the rights to international fishing boats.
A report published by the United Nations in March stated that North Korea earned approximately $120 million in 2018 by selling fishing rights that go in direct violation of the UN's sanctions on the country.
Ghost ships
According to Business Insider, two decapitated bodies were found last year on the Japanese coast in what was suspected to be a fishing boat from North Korea.
Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) or known in English as Japan's Broadcasting Corporation, previously reported that a boat etched with Korean characters washed ashore on the island of Sado last year.
Coast guards discovered seven partially skeletonized remains during an investigation of the vessel. The remains consisted of three bodies and two heads, whose bodies were not found on the boat as well as two bodies that have lost their heads.
The boat was believed to be one of the many ghost ships that have been the result of local North Korean fishermen being forced out of their territorial waters by Chinese fishing vessels.
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