Japan Can Never Shirk Responsibility for Sinking DPRK Fishing Vessel: KCNA Commentary

Pyongyang, October 28 (KCNA) -- Japan is trying to carry the war into the enemy's camp despite its burglar-like act of sinking our fishing vessel when it was on its normal navigation in the waters of the East Sea of Korea.

The Japanese authorities, opening to the public on Oct. 18 a video showing our vessel sinking, talked nonsense that "while our patrol ship was sailing frontward, the north Korean vessel turned the helm to the left" and "we took an appropriate measure to control illicit operation."

This is none other than a trick to evade the responsibility for sinking the vessel by ascribing the incident to so-called "illicit fishing operation" and "mistake in controlling vessel."

The fishing vessel incident obviously is nothing but a deliberate barbarity as it is a vivid expression of the Japanese authorities' insane hostile policy toward the DPRK.

The chief executive of Japan at the full-dress session of the House of Councilors on Oct. 8 said that an illegal fishing operation by the north Korean vessel was not confirmed. His official statement clearly shows that the DPRK vessel was on a normal navigation in the waters of the East Sea of Korea.

Nevertheless, the Japanese government, far from honestly admitting their gangster-like act, has gone so shameless as to spread the video, not content with peddling a story that the DPRK-flagged vessel didn't respond to its "interception" but made an abrupt turning only to collide with the patrol ship.

The video which shows only a scene of the collision of the vessels and the sinking of the DPRK vessel lays bare the foul mind of the Japanese authorities to hush up the truth of the incident.

Now the Japanese reactionaries are vocal that the DPRK-flagged fishing vessel met with an accident during an illicit fishing, backed by "data" which they made up deliberately to stop the whole story of the incident from being known.

But the broad media are casting strong doubts on the assertion of Japan, saying "it is difficult with the video to understand whether the north Korean vessel's turning was the direct cause of the incident" and "in the video was seen something like a net on the north Korean fishing vessel, but no crew of the north Korean side were seen working."

The fact that the Japanese patrol ship with a displacement of 1 300 tons dashed its head against the middle of the left side of a small ship with a displacement of 400 plus tons vividly proves that the former intentionally caused the collision to sink the latter.

This shows that the Japanese authorities are spreading sophism over the incident and with nothing can they shirk their responsibility for their gangster-like crime that sank our vessel and gravely threatened the life and safety of its crew.

The DPRK already gave an advance warning to the Japanese side that the interception and control of the action of its fishing vessel and other physical act could lead to a sudden clash.

However, as long as the Japanese side came out provocative, it is to be left with no reason to complain about the DPRK when it takes a corresponding action.

We strongly demand that the Japanese government compensate the material damage done to our fishing vessel and press for steps to prevent the recurrence of similar incident.

If such incident occurs again, Japan will see an undesirable result. -0-