Japan sinks ‘suspicious’ fishing boat

An unidentified fishing boat which defence officials said might have been spying was sunk off southwestern Japan after trading shots with Japanese coast guard vessels, officials said today.

The boat, which was marked with Chinese characters, was cruising in Japan’s exclusive economic zone near Amami Oshima island when it was detected by a Japanese naval surveillance aircraft Friday.

Patrol vessels and aircraft later gave chase after it disregarded orders to stop and fled west towards China.

After firing several warning shots, a coast guard vessel hit the stern of the boat with a burst of machine-gun fire this afternoon, starting a blaze that was later extinguished, Japan Coast Guard spokesman Yoji Osaka said.

The boat briefly halted after being hit, then resumed its flight.

It stopped a second time this evening and was surrounded by four Japanese vessels, but rough seas prevented boarding, said a Japanese government spokesman.

The unidentified ship later traded fire with the Japanese vessels, wounding a coast guard sailor, said a Coast Guard spokesman.

The suspect vessel was sunk in the exchange, leaving its 15 crew members adrift, the official said.

Coast guard sailors planned to arrest the crew members after plucking them from the water, he said.

Defence officials who examined photographs of the boat said it appeared similar to two suspected North Korean spy ships that were chased out of Japanese waters by patrol craft in March 1999, according to a Defence Agency spokesman.

Warning shots were fired in that incident but the intruders were not hit or apprehended.

One military analyst said the unidentified boat appeared to have a satellite dish and other features suggestive of surveillance activities.

Another report said government officials suspected the boat might have been a Chinese smuggling vessel.

It was originally seen sailing in a westerly direction in Japan’s 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone - an area in which Japan has exclusive fishing rights and vessels from other countries must allow authorities to conduct inspections.

Last year Japan briefly suspended economic aid to China after a series of incidents in which Chinese survey vessels entered Japan’s exclusive economic zone without notice.

China said the vessels were conducting oceanic research, but Japanese defence officials were concerned that they were on intelligence-gathering missions, according to domestic media reports.

Amami Oshima is about 560 miles south of Tokyo.