[Courtesy of Joint Chiefs of Staff]
North Korea, hit by a shortage of foreign currencies under tightened international sanctions, has sold a fishing license for 30 million US dollars, allowing some 1,500 Chinese fishing boats to operate in its territorial waters, Seoul's spy agency said Friday.
As a result, the number of Chinese fishing boats operating north of the tense inter-Korean sea border this year is almost three times the annual average, causing a headache both to South and North Korean fishermen, the National Intelligence Agency (NIS) said in a report to parliament.
This year, the impoverished and cash-strapped state has been under tough sanctions from the international community over a series of missile and nuclear tests. Exports of coal were cut by 40 percent, while the sale of weapons abroad plummeted 88 percent one-year.
Chinese fishing boats operating near the maritime border especially in the Yellow Sea has been a threat to South Korean fishermen because Chinese vessels deplete marine resources by catching the tiniest of fish and some even dare to work along the sensitive mouth of a border river.
Curbing illegal fishing by Chinese vessels has not been easy as they move through loopholes along the sea border. Sometimes they huddle up together to form a giant island of ships to stop South Korean coastguard officers. A coastguard officer was killed by Chinese fishermen in 2011.
Aju News Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
