crime

Appliances, other items missing on isle where N Korean crew sheltered

28 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

28 Comments
Login to comment

This so called kindness is misguided. Not only are they simple thieves, no more and no less but to trat them as any different to any other nationality caught committing a crime undermines the reputation of Japanese law and justice. Such leniency will only encourage others.

The Coast guard are not judge and jury, it is not their business to decide who is and who is not arrested for a crime.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They don't want the North Korean Sailors to be incarcerated because then their families will suffer or disappear. I think it's a kind gesture.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

They are already being granted leniency by the govt, or more precisely, the coast guard who are keeping them tethered off-shore and not handing them over to the police who are requesting to have them sent to port to be arrested; like any other nationality would be.

If past incidents are an indicator, they will be given a free engine repair, food and sent home. Locals are already making cries of preferable treatment and lack of compensation.

In the news they were interviewing a fisherman who came a few days afterwards. He said “they took everything. Food stocks, metal pots, pans, door hinges, anything metal. They also left fish bones and offal everywhere. There are pots full of fish carcasses.”

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They were stealing, plain and simple, and they felt guilty about it. Even in abject poverty, you do not steal. There are other ways of going about things.

We can either be strict, or generous. Which is it to be?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Mike Dasher is absolutely right. These are desperate starving people, trying to survive. Show a little empathy, and be glad that you can run to the combini whenever you want instead of eating grass, or even corn that has already passed through an animal.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is an abandoned island used a few days per year, how good the condition and how expansive do you think the items are ?

It is obvious that their goal was to bring these items back to NK and sell it. Knowing the level of poverty there, this IS for survival.

They took 4 solar out of 36, so the lighthouse is still working.

Everyday there are news of japanese robbing old people or threatening others with weapons.

If this is still too horrifying for you, I don't know what to say.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Additional information in the news reported that most of the stolen items were private belongings from a local fisheries lodge, where fishermen stay for several months during the kombu harvest season.

The solar panels stolen from the lighthouse were found discarded at the docks for reasons unknown. The lighthouse has subsequently been disabled and is running on an emergency generator brought by the coast guard.

The NK fishing boat is currently tethered to a coast guard boat pending engine repairs. The crew refuse to go ashore at a Japanese port and are demdanding to be sent back to NK immediately.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

How many uninhabited islets Japan has? Perhaps uncountable and left as they are. This kind of problems aren't highlighted a lot on tv if they aren't North Korean boats. As much more and more of those boats will come from NK, one of the best way to avoid those guys to port those islands is to be monitored with cameras like Konbini stores have.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I'm trying to imagine being lost at sea for a month, and finally with all hope lost, my boat washes up on shore of this islet. You find buildings that you can shelter in and some items that provide a source of distraction to your recent troubles. And then you decide to set out again towards your homeland. So your first thought is to steal things you can't use on your boat?

Get many channels on your tv out at sea? Plan on riding that motorbike on the ocean? Have a full pantry of food you need to keep properly refrigerated?

Cut them some slack on humanitarian grounds IF they took some minimal items they needed to survive. We're to believe that if they happened upon a giant crate full of gold and diamonds, they would have left that behind? Think not. They basically looted the place and took things they didn't need, but thought they could benefit from if they made it back home.

Lock them up.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

detaining them would only be doing a favor, better to send them back to their desolate homes.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Stealing that provided for ships and crew in trouble not to mention the power source for a light house is despicable and selfish beyond redemption (use what is there, keep warm and safe, ride out the storm, no one has a problem with that). However while they are criminals, just burn the boat and send them back to NK, a far worse punishment than a spell of good food and a comfy cell in Japan.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Thanks for cleaning japan's discarded trash

-11 ( +0 / -11 )

If proven then charge them with theft. Otherwise this seems like more of a storm in a tea cup for some than anything. Not that big a deal, really, especially since the place was uninhabited to begin with. Put back what you can that you got from the boat, equip the place again with some others stuff they dumped, if need be, and that's that. They got sent home anyway.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

The wooden boat was towed into a port outside Hakodate in Hokkaido on Sunday for inspection by police and the coast guard. The officials are also questioning the crewmen.

@ Scrote: Read before you comment and you will know that they are still here.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Why is this only mentioned after the people have been sent back to North Korea?

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

„How to talk with difficult countries to see if there are solutions?“

The former deputy foreign minister „(EU)“ still looks back on “a window of opportunity” that was missed in 2000 and makes diplomacy all the more desirable now.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Cricky, I completely agree with you. These are desperate people with no hope in their lives and no future. Desperate people take desperate actions sometimes. There is no telling what some of these appliances could have gone for on the black market in the DPRK. These mere things they took could have been sold to purchase food as the government distribution system in the DPRK doesn't provide enough for them to eat. They could have used these items to bribe border guards to look the other way as they reentered the country (after a trip much longer than expected, the government was most likely searching for them and had quite possibly declared them as defectors or enemies of the state).

To those so quick to judge the actions of these people and call them criminals and thieves...I agree with you too. What they did was wrong. It is unfortunate in this day and age that we have a country full of people so close to us that are starving and live in such horrid desperate conditions that they are willing to steal to survive. Obviously you have no sympathy, but why are you so calloused? If you don't think they were taking these things to survive, I would suggest you do a little research on what people in the DPRK are driven to do for survival. Books such as "The girl with seven names" and "In order to live" would be good starting points for you. The plight of the North Korean people is the worst injustice of our time in my opinion.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Theft. Plain and simple. Item were not taken to survive. Others arriving at the island may need to use them to survive and now will not find these items. Coming from an impoverished state and lacking these items is no excuse. They new full well that they were stealing and therefore dumped some items into the sea.

14 ( +19 / -5 )

refrain from commenting (on the discovery of missing items on the islet) with prejudgments as investigations are ongoing.

Exactly! Although such items might be worth a small fortune back in the Worker's Paradise, DPRK.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I agree about an emergency shelter, but the poor people of NK have an emergency situation. We should send all the second hand appliances which we deem as junk to NK. I had to pay¥500 to throw away an old but perfectly working rice cooker. Imagine the joy of a NK family to receive this as a gift?

-6 ( +6 / -12 )

.........found missing from a refuge hut. The hut had been locked, but it was broken into .............

Empathy? Theft from, and criminal damage to, a refuge hut equipped to save lives? If they had been using the refuge to save their skins then fine, that is what it is for but they weren't, they are common thieves and because they realised they had been caught they dumped the stuff in the ocean. Quite what that has to do with your problems with politicians I really don't know.

15 ( +21 / -6 )

Yep read the article, I'm so sorry my empathy gets the better of me sometimes shoot them all, thieves, scum how dare they loot an uninhabited island. Meanwhile billions are waisted by politicians shoot them too, scum bags. I'd rather see an impoverished person get the chance of an appliance then a politician earning my yearly salery monthly. Again I'm sorry you find offence at empathy, I empathise with your plight.

-17 ( +5 / -22 )

At least they might now be used to enhance a human life.

Did you actually read the article?

14 ( +17 / -3 )

No loss?

Those items were intentionally placed there for use in emergencies and for lighthouse maintenance crews.

The article also says that the NK fishermen were seen dumping said items into the ocean when approached by a Coast Guard ship.

So yeah... double loss.

24 ( +28 / -4 )

Desperate people lost at sea for a month taking some stuff that is never used. Not a big deal in my book.

-18 ( +5 / -23 )

Uninhabited Island so no loss. Government spend more in a minute than the worth of these items. At least they might now be used to enhance a human life.

-17 ( +4 / -21 )

I believe anyone in a desperate situation would taken whatever they could from the «western civilization»!

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites