Japan’s rescued North Korean sailors at sea. How will Tokyo return them?
The Japan Coast Guard recovered three North Korean sailors off the coast of Shimane Prefecture on Thursday. | GETTY IMAGES / VIA BLOOMBERG
Sep 18, 2026
Three North Korean sailors were recovered by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) off the western coast of Shimane Prefecture on Thursday, with one other person still missing at sea.
The incident marks a rare circumstance in which North Korean authorities requested international assistance in recovering its maritime personnel. It now places Japanese authorities in an even rarer position of determining how to repatriate the recovered individuals amid the diplomatic stalemate between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
The North Korean vessel sank on Thursday morning off the coast 104 kilometers southwest of one of the Oki Islands called Nishinoshima. It was being towed by a larger cargo vessel.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information,
quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.