North Korea has accused Japan of trespassing in its waters. Is this just a gambit to open talks?

Pyongyang’s allegation and its threat of ‘strong countermeasures’ are seen as a sign of its worsening famine – and a bid for formal engagement with Tokyo

The food-supply situation, analysts say, may be driving North Korea to seek ways of lifting the international sanctions it is under

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A Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel at a port in Aomori, northeastern Japan, in 2019. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 7:30pm, 23 Aug 2021Updated: 8:41pm, 23 Aug 2021

North Korea’s accusation that Japan has been operating in its waters – and its threat of “strong countermeasures” – are an indication of a worsening food-supply situation, analysts believe, though the statements are also seen as a potential opening gambit in getting Tokyo to open talks.

The North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly and representatives of the army, the foreign ministry and the land and environmental ministry held talks on Sunday, after which Pyongyang announced that Japanese vessels had been “illegally intruding” into areas of the East Sea – which Tokyo calls the Sea of Japan.

In a post on its website, the North Korea foreign ministry said the issue “has become a reality in recent years” and that Pyongyang was basing its claim on territorial waters linked to Dokdo, the South Korean-controlled islets that are halfway between the Korean peninsula and Japan, which also claims them.

The statement from North Korea does not specify the area that it is claiming, but analysts believe it refers to the Yamatotai fishing grounds around 350km north of the Noto Peninsula in northwest Japan.

There have been a number of recent confrontations in the area – which is renowned for its catches, particularly of squid during the autumn months – with Japanese Coast Guard vessels intercepting Chinese and North Korean ships operating within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

In October 2019, a North Korean fishing boat sank after an accidental collision with a Japanese Coast Guard vessel. The 60 crew members were rescued and put aboard other fishing boats.

North Korea has accused Japan of trespassing in its waters. Is this just a gambit to open talks?

Pyongyang’s allegation and its threat of ‘strong countermeasures’ are seen as a sign of its worsening famine – and a bid for formal engagement with Tokyo The food-supply situation, analysts say, may be driving North Korea to seek ways of lifting the international sanctions it is under

Pyongyang’s allegation and its threat of ‘strong countermeasures’ are seen as a sign of its worsening famine – and a bid for formal engagement with Tokyo

The food-supply situation, analysts say, may be driving North Korea to seek ways of lifting the international sanctions it is under