Five bodies and two severed human heads were found in a wrecked boat off the coast of Japan. The boat washed up on Sado Island on Friday (27/12) and the authorities managed to board on Saturday (28/12), facing the macabre findings. The nearly wrecked boat had Korean letters painted on its side.
Police could not confirm whether the two heads belonged to the bodies, but Japanese media reported that some of the bodies were in advanced decomposition. This could indicate that the victims were at sea for a long time, the BBC reports.
However, an investigation was launched to determine the exact causes of death of the people who, as everything shows, were the crew. The so-called "ghost boats" believed to have originated in North Korea are a common "find" off the coast of Japan. They are usually empty or contain only decomposed corpse remains.
During the winter, exposure to bad weather and starvation are the most likely causes of death for crew members. In previous cases, there have been speculations that the crew on such boats were apostates or spies from the North Korean regime.
However, another factor is the fact that due to poverty many North Korean fishermen move away to fish far from home.
A police officer first discovered the wooden boat on Friday afternoon, but police waited until Saturday before investigating, due to unstable weather that made it difficult to approach the wreck.
This was the second time since last month that a wooden boat washed up on the shores of Sado Island, authorities said, according to Reuters.
In 2017, a boat crew was discovered alive aboard a boat that was hijacked and the men asked to return to North Korea. Ongoing tensions between Japan and North Korea could make it difficult to fully investigate the latest wreck.
Source: e-daily.gr