Posted on 12/29/2002 6:17:34 AM PST by knighthawk
A North Korean spy ship that sunk off Kagoshima's Amami Oshima Island last year following a gun battle with Japan Coast Guard ships was probably the same one that was used in a drug deal with Japanese gangsters in 1998, coast guard officials said Friday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has already admitted that the ship belonged to his country's special forces, which has raised suspicions that North Korean officials were involved in a drug-smuggling operation using the vessel.
During an informal Cabinet minister gathering on Friday, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi confirmed that a mobile phone retrieved from the sunken spy ship showed several calls had been made to Japanese gangsters, and that the spy ship had possibly been on a drug smuggling mission when it was sunk.
Ministry officials said photograph analysis of the ship showed it was practically the same as one that was used in a drug operation off Kochi in 1988. In that operation, members of the Sumiyoshi-kai gang planned to trade 300 kilograms of drugs with a North Korean ship in the East China Sea.
Court records show that a U.S. aircraft spotted the suspicious ship moving toward another fishing ship operated by gang members waiting for it at about 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, 1998. This ship bore the Japanese name "Shojin Maru," and was carrying the Japanese flag. But when the aircraft followed the suspicious vessel to confirm its identity the following day, the name of the ship had changed to Korean hangul characters and the Japanese flag had disappeared.
Gang members who were later arrested in connection with the operation testified that North Korea was involved in the drug deal.
Six drug deals involving North Korea have occurred since 1997, National Police Agency data shows. All of them occurred in the Yellow Sea or East China Sea, which are close to North Korea. In one case 564 kilograms of stimulants was seized from a Chinese ship off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture. The ship had loaded the drugs on board in North Korean waters. Police believe the uncovered deals are only the tip of the iceberg.
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