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Coast Guard finds small spy boat inside salvaged ship

KAGOSHIMA -- A ship that sank off Kagoshima Prefecture late last year and was raised Wednesday is likely to be a spy ship from North Korea as a small boat apparently to send agents ashore was found inside, officials said.


	Mainichi Shimbun
	The suspected spy ship is brought to the surface in the East China Sea on Wednesday.

The Japan Coast Guard's (JCG) 10th Coast Guard Headquarters raised the suspicious ship shortly before 1 p.m. off Amami Oshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, JCG officials said.

After raising the ship, officials searched the ship and found a small boat equipped with three engines behind the double doors of the ship's stern.

Because the small boat could have been used to send agents ashore, the officials believe the ship likely came on a spy mission.

The JCG and prefectural police will further examine the vessel after it has been transported to Kagoshima Prefecture in a bid to exactly identify its nationality and clarify the purpose of its intrusion into Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Investigators believe that the vessel was secretly dispatched to Japan in a bid to smuggle illegal drugs into the country, or to send and pick up North Korean spies.

Workers on salvage ships began the operation in the East China Sea about 390 kilometers west-northwest of Amami Oshima Island to raise the ship sunk on the 90-meter-deep sea floor. The area is within China's EEZ.

In three days time, the ship will be brought to Kagoshima Bay where investigators will see if it contains explosives or other dangerous articles. If it is confirmed safe, JCG and police will raise the ship onto the ground to examine it.

The sunken ship is believed to be about 30 meters long, 5 meters wide and 2.6 meters high, and weigh approximately 100 tons. The vessel's body is blue and its bow bears a Chinese name.

Divers have already recovered a ground-to-air missile and a rocket launcher from the area where the ship sank.

The heavily armed rogue ship sank on Dec. 22 last year after engaging in an intense battle with several JCG ships following a daylong chase. Crewmembers of the spy ship fired rockets at the coast guard ships but they missed their target by whiskers because of heavy seas.

The unidentified ship exploded and sunk after a JCG ship returned fire with a 20-millimeter cannon. JCG suspect crewmembers of the rouge ship may have blown it up. (Mainichi Shimbun, Sept. 11, 2002)

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20020911p2a00m0fp005005c.html

. JCG suspect crewmembers of the rouge ship may have blown it up.

Rouge? How gay. What ever happened to the good old days when the bad guys wore black?

I am very glad they followed through with this.