This is just juvenille: Korean and Japanese maritime police in a tug-of-war

UPDATE:  To see why the Marmot gets over 2,500 hits a day while I only get about 400, see his much fuller coverage of the same event.

Original post:  In an incident that should embarrass both sides into doing something about North-East Asian fish pirates, Korean and Japanese maritime police boats ended up in a tug-of-war over a Korean boat that had been illegally fishing in Japanese waters:

Maritime police forces from Korea and Japan engaged in a literal tug-of- war on the open sea off Ulsan yesterday after both sides lashed lines to a Korean fishing boat in an attempt to pull the vessel into their respective territorial waters.

The Japanese authorities said that the Korean fishing vessel, named Sinpungho, intruded into their exclusive economic zone and fished illegally.
Just after midnight Tuesday, three Japanese boats approached the Sinpungho after the Korean trawler was discovered on radar to be 5 kilometers (3 miles) inside Japan's economic zone.

That's too bad for the fishermen but it was a fair cop.  But then things started to get silly:

Fearing capture by the Japanese, the Korean boat headed back toward Korea but was caught by a Japanese vessel. When three police officers tried to board the Shin Poong Ho, one fell into the sea.
In the confusion as the Japanese sought to rescue the officer, the Sinpungho, with the other two Japanese officers aboard, tried to escape. In an effort to stop the boat from fleeing, the Japanese officers attacked Shin Poong Ho's captain, Jeong Wook-hyun, and another crew member.....

Time out.  Now, call me strange but if a crook is trying to escape and the police are trying to stop him, I think a verb other than 'attack' might be in order.  Police 'attempt to arrest.'

In any case, Fish Pirate Shin made it to Korean waters and called for back up:

When it reached Korean waters, the vessel reported the incident to Busan maritime police.
Ulsan police sent three ships, one of which tied up to the Sinpungho on its port side in order pull it back to Korea.
A Japanese vessel, smaller than the Korean counterparts, lashed on to the opposite side in a bid to drag the ship toward Japan.

The article doesn't say how it ended but I assume that the bigger Korea boat won the contest.

This whole incident indicates a serious lack of cooperation between the Korean and Japanese maritime police forces (AKA: coast guards).  If there was trust between the two then the Japanese could have just reported the incident to the Koreans and maintained contact until the Koreans came to arrest Fish Pirate Shin.

But nooooo, that just couldn't happen.  What we have instead is the incident degenerating into another pissing contest between Korea and Japan:

According to a Korean government official, Japan argued that because the Sinpungho had intruded into its economic zone and remained on the open sea yesterday, Japan had the right to seize it for investigation. The Korean official called the notion "unacceptable."
The standoff took place about 29 kilometers off Ulsan. The area, while in the Korean exclusive economic zone, belongs to neither country.
Noting the incident, Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, expressed his concerns to Japan's deputy foreign minister, Ichiro Isawa, who was visiting Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Jeju Island beginning today.
"The Japanese should retreat so that we can deal with this internally," Mr. Ban was quoted by a government official as saying. "If there's any penalty to be handed out, we will do it."

Perhaps Ban should not be so smug considering that the Korean maritime police were on the receiving end of a similar (if more violent) incident less than a week ago.

My take on this is that, once the Japanese let Fish Pirate Shin get away, they should have called the Koreans to take up pursuit.  For their part the Koreans should arrest Shin and turn the proceeds from selling his load of pirated fish to the Japanese (after a speedy and fair trial, of course).

It is just ridiculous for stuff like this to still be going on in the twenty-aughts.

Comments

[passerby]

Although I agree that there is a serious lack of trust between the Japanese and Korean coast guards, I disagree that this situation was "silly," even if the tug-o-war image seemed hilarious, at least on the surface. The situation ended, BTW, after the Japanese coast guards, pressured by politicians to end the situation in a way that will not aggravate Japan-Korean relationship, agreed to release the vessel when the captain of the ship Sinpungho admitted to the illegal activity and paid the bond of 500,000 yens. By then 6 Korean police vessels and 7 Japanese coast guard vessels were on the scene. If the coast guards were not pressured by the politicians, I believe the tug-o-war would still be going on, since they were not about to let this vessel, which had been spotted 20 times in Japanese EEZ in the past, escape.

According to Article 23 of the Convention of the High Seas 1958 (http://www.un.org/law/ilc/texts/hseas.htm), the Japanese coast guards had the authority to arrest the vessel since the right of hot pursuit does not cease unless the vessel enters the territorial waters of another country. The tug-o-war took place 60 km off the coast of Korea, which is still outside its territorial waters (although inside its EEZ). Thus, in such a case, the Korean coast guard should have turned the vessel over to the Japanese coast guards. But it didn't. Gives you a hint why the Japanese side didn't trust its Korean counterpart to begin with. So, seen from the Japanese side, the Korean police gave protection to a suspect, and the Korean government demanded extraterritoriality, which naturally incensed the Japanese. The Japanese press coverage was critical of the Koreans, even Asahi TV which generally takes an anti-Japanese stance on Asian conflicts. The media also presented how the Korean media treated the captain like a hero, strengthening the impression that any crime committed against the Japanese is praised and glorified in Korea, North or South. I am more angered at how lamely my government handled the situation. Now, you will see more and more Korean pirate ships making a run for protection of the Korean police or navy even on high waters, and the Japanese coast guards having to stretch their resources for the pursuit. However, the impression I got from the Internet is that the anger of the average Japanese, who had previously been oblivious to Korea except for superficial objects like Yon-sama, is equally turned towards South Korea. The hostility seems to be rooted in a sense of betrayal by a country that had been considered an ally. The intent of the Japanese politicians appears to have completely backfired, at least, on the wired world. Though it seems that the Koreans are regarding this outcome as a victory, I really wonder if this suspected pirate was worth antagonizing the Japanese public for. Though the anger will probably die down in a few days, little things like these do pile up.

[Little Kim]

no problems if greedy Koreans would obey international laws and stop fishing in Japanese water.

[Gagasoso]

I'm more worried about the hate between Korean political parties than about the problems between South Korea and Japan.