19:20 on January 14th, when I boarded a wooden boat abandoned

One wooden boat launched on the shore. When I got inside, it was written in Korean as "Korean People's Army". Who was riding for what? What happened to those who were riding ... As a matter of fact, it is a “shipped wooden ship” that you do not know. I decided to interview. (Aomori Bureau reporter Daiki Makino)

Winter tradition! ? Wooden boat abandoned

In winter, wooden boats drift ashore on the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan. According to the Japan Coast Guard last year (2019) there were 144 cases nationwide. In the last five years, there have been 484 cases. Looking at by prefecture, the largest number was 92 in Ishikawa, 88 in Niigata, and 85 in Aomori. Aomori Prefecture, where I work, was the third in Japan.

Where is the wooden boat?

Where did the wooden boat come from? One day I thought so, a letter from Aomori Coast Guard sent a facsimile message on a “shipped wooden ship”. I thought it was a good opportunity and asked a question.

As expected, Kaiho has a hard mouth. I could hardly get a clue ...

I went to the site

So I decided to actually go to the site. I visited Tsugaru City at the base of the Tsugaru Peninsula. Get off the car and walk 30 minutes to the coast. When I arrived at the site, I saw a wooden boat that had been launched.

I imagined a small boat from the name of a wooden boat, but it actually feels quite large. The ship was 1 meter 70 cm high, 14 meters long and 3 meters 30 cm wide.

As you approach, you will see a number written in red on the bow "598-67321" on a white background. Is it a ship identification number? The sides of the ship are very poor, with only wooden boards being nailed. Walk around the boat for any other clues, but find nothing outstanding.

Is it something we can't get inside the ship? When I asked Tsugaru City, which manages the ship, he said, "It's okay if you pay attention to safety." I contacted the Coast Guard Department just in case and confirmed that there was no problem.

I tried to enter a “shipped wooden ship”

We reported to the desk and decided to go into a wooden boat with due consideration for safety. However, the height of the ship is 1.7 meters. I have no ladder and I can't get on myself alone at 1m 67cm tall. There he clung to the side of the ship, and the accompanying photographer pushed the ass and managed to get on board.

When you get off the deck, you'll find some algae-like objects sticking in some places, making you feel creepy. Just below the ship there are many waves, with the sound of a go. There's nothing like a cockpit, and you can't see anything striking whether you've been exposed to the wind or waves as you settle. On the other hand, when I turned my eyes downward, I saw several square holes, several tens of centimeters square.

Looking into one of them, there is something like a generator.

I looked up and saw characters written like Chinese.

Looking further inside the ship, I noticed that Hangul was written on the port side inside the bow. Immediately shoot it with your smartphone and send it to a desk that understands Hangul.

"It is written as the 5133th Army of the Korean People's Army" In addition, the name of the administrator was also written. Did soldiers board the wooden boat?

When I visited another "shipped wooden ship", I found a bag with a pop design from inside the ship. The bag had Hangul written "chocolate" and a dog-like, bear-like animal character kicking a soccer ball.

A bar code is also displayed on the bag, and the first three digits are written as "867". When I checked it, it was a number showing North Korea. The bag looked like a chocolate wrap sold in North Korea.

Asked an expert

With clues found on board, I decided to ask the experts for their views. I visited Professor Satoru Miyamoto of Seigakuin University, who is familiar with the situation in North Korea. When I show a photograph taken on site-

Miyamoto: "This is definitely a ship from North Korea. It is certainly the name of a military unit."

Reporter "Who is riding for what?"

Miyamoto: "After the farming season is over, it is highly likely that farmers who will not be in winter go fishing for cash income."

Why farmers on military ships? Are farmers soldiers in North Korea? He was confused and explained the mechanism when he asked more questions.

Miyamoto: "In the case of North Korea, you should not build your own company and do business such as fishing, so it can be a military unit, a state-owned company, or even a school. Only after you receive permission to do business do you pay a certain amount or achievement to your institution. "

According to Prof. Miyamoto, “wooden wooden boats” are likely to have arrived from North Korea. Farmers who have gone through a busy season are fishing on wooden boats to earn cash income. At that time, he was sometimes assigned to the military.

Certainly, if a farmer who is unfamiliar with fishing gets on a wooden boat and breaks down the engine, he or she will be washed away to Japan.

What happened to those who were riding?

So one question came up. "Where did the people on board go?" "Wooden boats" sometimes have people on board. In 2017, a wooden boat arrived off the coast of Matsumae-cho, Hokkaido, and was arrested by police for stealing home appliances from a hut on an uninhabited island.

In Aomori Prefecture, two men were found last January (2019) from a drifting wooden boat and were delivered to North Korea. However, such cases are extremely rare and mostly unmanned.

When I ask Professor Miyamoto questions

Professor Miyamoto: "In some cases, waves may be thrown into the sea while drifting, and in other cases, it may be rescued by another boat fishing nearby."

Where is the body that has drifted?

So what happens to those found dead from a drifting wooden boat? In fact, there are many cases where dead bodies can be found from “wooden wooden boats”. On the 27th of last month (December), a dead body was found in a wooden boat that had landed on the coast of Sado City, Niigata Prefecture.

According to the Japan Coast Guard, 54 people have been found dead in the three years until last year (2019).

In Aomori Prefecture, in 2015 and 2017, four people were each found dead from wooden boats that had landed on Sai Village, the northernmost tip of the Shimokita Peninsula. When I contacted the village to get information about these people, they said they had more details in the official gazette.

I checked the official gazette, and found that eight of them were unidentified and had no dead body.

Of these, the official gazette of 2015 includes a statement such as "DPR KOREA (North Korea) is displayed on the jumper tag." The 2017 Official Gazette had the word "Chest Badge". It is said that the "Chest Badge" is still stored in the village. Immediately, they visited and showed me.

The badge had a face that smiled at Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Korean Labor Party chairman, Kim Il-sung, Kim Il Sung. The official gazette states, "The village has cremated and keeps the remains, so if you have any idea, please offer it." When I checked with the village, it was true that the ashes were stored as unrelated Buddha.

Among them, four of them in 2015 were delivered by the Korean Red Cross Society in the following year because of the request from the Korea Federation of Korean Residents in Japan. Honestly, it was surprising that such a request was received from the North Korean side.

On the other hand, the remains of the four people in 2017 were still in temples in the village. When I talk to Shinichi Yoshida, a priest, once a year, village officials and others gather at a temple during the Bon Festival season, and they say that everyone is raising their lives, including the remains of unknown identities.

We asked Yoshida to take him to the hut where the ashes were kept. The white-colored hut, just like the snow in the area, was located on a slightly elevated place overlooking the sea.

"Is there North Korea beyond this sea?" With the snow falling steadily, I felt sad about the people who died and would like to return to my family.

Now, "shipped wooden boats" are rarely big news, and some of them take them for granted. However, during this interview, I learned a lot about what I don't know about wooden boats, and I learned how various people are involved. Rather than getting used to the phenomena that are happening, I thought again that I would like to take a closer look at the site and get closer to what is behind it.

Aomori Broadcasting Station Reporter Daiki Makino Joined in 2013 Maebashi Station, Hachinohe Branch Office, etc.Currently in charge of case coverage