North Korean ‘Suspicious Ships’

Abstract

In March 1999 and December 2001, the Japan Defence Agency (JDA) notified the Japanese Cabinet Office of incursions by suspicious ships, believed to originate from North Korea, into Japan’s sovereign maritime territory.¹ The Cabinet Office responded in both instances by ordering the dispatch of the JCG and Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to apprehend the suspicious ships. These orders were virtually unprecedented. Prior to 1999, the Japanese authorities recorded some 21 instances of suspicious ships entering Japanese maritime sovereignty to engage in espionage and criminal activities, such as trading in illicit amphetamines for the Japanese market (Ishikawa 1999: 98; Mizoguchi 1999; Okabe 2003), conducting surveillance operations, or ferrying abducted Japanese citizens to serve as language teachers to North Korean spies (Chōbōjikenkenkyūkai 1999: 39). The 1999 and 2001 cases signalled a break from previous suspicious ship incursions: the Japanese government was adopting a more robust stance vis-à-vis incursions into its territorial waters.