On Wednesday, a Coast Guard from Japan received distress signals from a North Korean cargo ship and went out to rescue the 26 North Koreans whose ship had flooded. All passengers had gotten onto life boats by the time the JCG made it out there, and they were put into custody until a tanker came to bring them back to North Korea. The cargo ship has since sunk. It was carrying 5,000 tons of rice and had to go around the Korean peninsula to deliver the cargo from the east side to the west. As the poorest country in Asia, the sinking of that much rice is a big deal for North Korean citizens.
Japan does not allow North Korean ships to dock at their ports. North Korea would like to, but Japan will not lift those sanctions until they are willing to stop their nuclear program.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/asia/north-koreans-rescued-japan/
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/01/11/Japan-coast-guard-rescues-flooded-North-Korea-cargo-ship/3591484188492/
It's good to know that there are some people in the world that don't take advantage of situations like this. I can think of several people who would willingly use those guys as bargaining chips.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. And had the situation been reversed, I'm sure North Korea would have held them captive, whether they chose to put them in prison camps or try to haggle with Japan.
DeleteYeah, that wouldn't start a war at ALL. XD
DeleteNo, never XD something I could really see them doing is making up that they broke a law and putting them in their prison camps. They've done this before with American tourists, where they say they stole something and even have "quotes" from the supposed perpetrator, but then you never even get a video of them, so you can tell they're making the whole thing up. North Korea is seriously a mess.
ReplyDeleteI meant XO like a scared face but thanks for the catch.
DeleteI had no idea that they did this with American tourists, not that that it changes the importance because they are American, but I will definitely be checking this out.
Ohh, that makes sense.
DeleteI know, it's sad. Here is an interesting article about it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/what-happens-to-foreigners-arrested-in-north-korea/
The first part of the article is kind of just the general overhaul. The next parts go into depth through a bunch of cases. Some of them are real, and some of them you can't tell because we don't know how much brainwash and blackmail could've been involved, but regardless the way they treat them is horrendous. Starting with a "trial", many ending with torture or labor camps accompanied by torture. It's scary how they can completely fake it just because they don't like what nation they come from and want to intimidate their enemies.
It's true that North Korea definitely treats any foreigners it gets a hold of differently than Japan or the US would. Of course, they treat their own people that way, so I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise.
ReplyDelete