Japan raises mystery ship from East China Sea

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Sept 16, 2002

KAGOSHIMA, Japan, Sept. 11 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH FINDING SMALL VESSEL IN RAISED SHIP, ADDING INFO)

The Japan Coast Guard raised a suspected North Korean ship Wednesday from the seabed of the East China Sea, where it sank last December after a shoot-out with the coast guard's patrol vessels.

The coast guard said it found a small vessel -- with three engines and three screws -- inside double doors on the stern of the salvaged ship. Defense analysts have said North Korean spy ships often carry smaller vessels to be used to land agents in Japan.

Coast guard officials said they plan to tow the 100-ton class ship in three days to the Kagoshima Bay in southwestern Japan where they will check the vessel for about a week and bring it to land around Sept. 20.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a press conference that full examination of the ship, including confirming its origin, will likely begin around Sept. 21.

Shortly after noon, the 15,850-ton salvage ship Yoshida Go No. 60 raised the vessel from a depth of 90 meters. It was put it in a water-filled tank on the Yoshida Go's deck.

The salvage ship, equipped with a crane, raised the vessel after divers connected cables from the crane to cables already installed on the sunken ship.

Four Chinese patrol vessels and a plane watched the operation as the site was within China's exclusive economic zone.

The raised ship -- 30 meters long and five meters wide -- was disguised as a Chinese fishing boat but it has a V-shaped bottom, which is peculiar to warships and patrol ships, the coast guard officials said.

There are four three-bladed screws and boards believed to be helms on the right and left side of the raised ship.

The steel ship has double doors at its stern, which carries Chinese characters describing the name Shipu, a fishing port in Zhejiang Province, southwestern China.

The ship's bridge is destroyed but there is almost no damage to the hull, the officials said.

It sank three or four minutes after an explosion but there is no visible hole from the blast, they said.

The ship sank about 390 kilometers off the western Japan island of Amami-Oshima after a skirmish with Japanese coast guard patrol vessels on Dec. 22.

Tokyo claims the ship was a North Korean vessel apparently involved in espionage or drug-running. North Korea has denied the allegations.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he will take up Japan's allegations that North Korea is sending camouflaged spy or drug-trafficking vessels into waters around Japan when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang next Tuesday.

An estimated 15 people were aboard the vessel, and all are presumed dead. The coast guard has recovered the remains of four, as well as a rocket gun.

The four engine ship was heavily armed with portable antiaircraft missiles, the coast guard said.

The coast guard dispatched a salvage vessel and other boats to the site for the salvage operation, but it was halted several times due to approaching typhoons. The salvage was originally to be completed in July.

The vessels quit the area on Aug. 27 due to the approach of Typhoon Rusa, the season's 15th, and Sinlaku, the 16th, later battered much of the main island of Okinawa Prefecture. The two typhoons forced a suspension of the salvage operation for nearly two weeks.