The Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said that N. Korea's claim is unacceptable. (Image via The Straits Times)

Japan refuses N. Korea's demand for compensation

Last Saturday, North Korea (N. Korea) stated its “strong” demand for the Japanese government to compensate for the broken fishing boat, which was referred to as a “Gangster act”. Also, Pyongyang asked Tokyo to prevent the incident from reoccurring in the future.

Japan, represented by its Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, refused the compensation demand, stating that the demand was unacceptable. Since Japan and N. Korea don’t have any bilateral relations, Tokyo then lodged a protest against Pyongyang at its embassy in Beijing. Suga was considering how and when the Japanese government should release the footage of the collision as he stated last Friday.

On Monday last week, N. Korean fishing boat collided with a Japanese sea patrol boat belonging to Fisheries Agency, about 350km northwestern of Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture. The Japanese government was, indeed, holding a patrol to prevent any illegal poaching in the Sea of Japan, included within their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The Japanese patrol boat was chasing the N. Korean fishing boat out of its EEZ when it collided. While the sea patrol boat suffered no significant damage, the N. Korean fishing boat was heavily damaged, until all its crews had to abandon ship. As many as 60 crews were rescued. They immediately left the scene by boarding another N. Korean fishing boat.

While Tokyo stated that the N. Korean was squid poaching in the Sea of Japan, N. Korea stated that the fishing boat was sailing in a correct direction, referring to the Tokyo’s statement as “misleading”.

Source: https://bit.ly/2MieTNE