UP to 60 North Korean fishermen have been rescued by Japan’s coast guard after their boat collided with a Japanese patrol vessel and sank.
A major search and rescue mission was launched to pull the crew men from the water as their steel boat went down half an hour after the crash in Japans’ exclusive economic zone. Japan’s Fisheries Agency said the crew, estimated to be about 60-strong, were caught fishing illegally in an area crowded with poachers. Japanese government ships and aircraft were called in to assist with the emergency operation.
The North Korean fishermen were operating illegally in the Sea of Japan (Image: GOOGLE)
Around 60 North Korean fishermen have been pulled from the water after the collision (Image: GETTY/BING)
The collision took place 217 miles northwest of Noto peninsula within Japan's exclusive economic zone.
A coastguard spokesman said: "We don't know how many were on board in the first place but we were informed that more than 20 were rescued. It appears probably no one else is left in the water.”
Satoshi Kuwahara, head of Japan's Fisheries Agency's enforcement division, said: “Normally, we police illegal fishing with such steps as using water cannon or showing messages on electronic displays.
“This time, the contact happened while we were warning the ship to sail away.”
Coastguard officials earlier said about 20 North Korean crew members were thrown into the sea after their steel boat collided with a Japanese Fisheries Agency inspection boat off the northern Japanese coast.
The coastguard said it was sorting out the number of fishermen and making sure nobody was missing.
The North Korean boat sank about half an hour after the collision in an area called Yamatotai, known as rich ground for squid fishing north west of the Noto Peninsula.
A regional coastguard office in northern Japan said the North Korean crew members had no life-threatening conditions and were being taken to land.