‘Ghost boat’ washes ashore in Japan carrying two heads and five skeletons ‘of North Koreans desperate to escape Kim Jong-Un’s evil regime’
- Police discovered the remains of five people on the coast of Sado island, Japan
- The dismembered heads of two people and five bodies were found in a boat
- Authorities are yet to confirm whether the heads belong to the torsos
- Gruesome haul found in a wooden ship with North Korean writing on the bow
Japanese police found the remains of at least five people in a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on the coast of one of Japan’s outlying islands on Saturday, a Coast Guard official said.
Police made the discovery in the wooden boat’s stem around 9:30 am (00:30 GMT) on Saturday on Sado island, which is off the coast of Japan’s northwestern prefecture of Niigata, Coast Guard official Kei Chinen said.
Police found the heads of two persons, as well as five bodies, Chinen said, adding that the cause of death is under investigation.
Japanese broadcaster NHK said the remains were ‘partially skeletonized,’ suggesting the victims may have been at sea for a long time.
Image shows the broken North Korean boat that has been discovered carrying the dismembered corpses of a group of people off the coast of Sado island in Japan. Police are currently unaware as to whether the heads belong to the bodies
The official could not immediately confirm whether the heads belonged to the five bodies or were from two other people, saying that is being investigated.
The wooden boat had letters and numbers written in Korean on its outside, he added.
A police officer first spotted the wooden boat on Friday afternoon. Police waited until Saturday before entering it due to unstable weather.
The discovery on Saturday marks the second time since last month that a wooden boat has washed up on the shores of Sado island, Chinen said.
A locator map shows Sado island, which is off the coast of Japan’s northwestern prefecture of Niigata, where the bodies were found today
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is pictured in April this year during a meeting in Vladivostok, Russia. Yesterday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK sent a news bulletin that incorrectly reported North Korea had launched a missile that fell into waters east of the Japanese archipelago
The grisly find adds to the troubles that Japan and South Korea have with their neighbour North Korea, as strained diplomatic ties over the North’s nuclear arms programme could make an investigation difficult to carry out.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has given the United States until the end of the year to propose new concessions in talks over his country’s nuclear arsenal and reducing tensions between the adversaries.
Also on Friday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK sent a news bulletin that incorrectly reported North Korea had launched a missile that fell into waters east of the Japanese archipelago, issuing an apology explaining it was a media training alert.