Lacking modern equipment, Pyongyang tries to buy it covertly–most often from Japan. Tokyo estimates that about 100 Japanese fishing boats have been sold illegally to North Korea over the last 15 years. Many are apparently used as models for North Korean vessels that run drugs or spy on Pyongyang’s enemies. The boat sales don’t pose much of a threat to Japan’s national security. But the combination of lax export-control laws and advanced technology is becoming a serious problem. South Korean authorities claim that Japanese semiconductors and high-quality welding machines were used to build the North’s three-stage liquid-fuel Taepodong missile. “North Koreans are very good at making use of Japanese high-tech goods for military purposes,” says Diet member Ichita Yamamoto.
Japanese investigators are now curious about seven used squid-fishing boats that were supposed to have been exported to the Philippines in the late 1990s. The ships were docked at Nanao port in northern Japan, and when they left were accompanied by North Korean cargo ships that had also been at Nanao. Crew men from the cargo ships were seen boarding the fishing boats, say sources, and all of the boats motored off in the direction of North Korea.
Selling used ships to the North is not technically illegal in Japan, but the process is highly bureaucratic. Shipowners–who can receive as much as $125,000 per ship, and who would otherwise have to shell out up to $70,000 to have each boat scrapped–thus sell their ships to brokers who fake their final destinations. In June 2000, for instance, the No. 31 Hakuyomaru, a 21-year-old squid-fishing boat, was scheduled to sail from Japan’s northern Onahama port to new owners in Indonesia. Officials of the Japan Coast Guard who boarded the 130-ton ship noticed that it was carrying no chart and not enough fuel and food for three Japanese crew members to get to the archipelago; even its Indonesian flag hung upside down. The ship’s maritime agent had to resubmit papers. Soon after the boat finally left Japan, it reported “engine trouble” off Kyushu and sailed to Mukho port in South Korea. There the original crew was replaced with seamen from Burma, and investigators say they took the boat to North Korea’s Kimchaek port.
Japan chased down the culprits. Last July six men, including a trading-company president in Kobe and a South Korean ship broker, were indicted by the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office for falsifying papers and violating foreign-exchange laws in the sale of the Hakuyomaru. Investigators say the ship’s purchase order was placed by the strategic department of Kim Jong Il’s Workers Party and the payment was made through a North Korean trading house.
For cash-strapped Pyongyang, buying old Japanese boats is cheaper than building new ones of its own. Japanese vessels are usually equipped with sophisticated equipment–advanced Global Positioning Systems, radar and dependable engines. Investigators say Pyongyang converts some of the boats into spy ships, and removes equipment from others and installs it on North Korean boats. A 10-ton North Korean mini-submarine was sunk by South Korean naval forces in December 1998. South Korean investigators found that 21 percent of the parts found in the vessel were Japanese-made, including a radar system, GPS plotter and depth finder. Another submarine discovered earlier that year also carried several Japanese parts, including a GPS navigator and a so-called active sonar system. Japanese investigators later traced its GPS back to the same trading-company official who had sold off the Hakuyomaru. With its scarce resources, Pyongyang will no doubt continue to fish for technology wherever it can.
