3 bodies found adrift off Japan

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TOKYO—Three bodies and a partially capsized wooden boat were found drifting off central Japan Sunday, the coastguard said, as a report suggested the boat originated in Korea.

The almost-submerged boat was spotted off the city of Wajima early Sunday and the coastguard found the bodies in the sea nearby.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper said the craft was marked with the Hangeul alphabet used in North and South Korea.

“The bodies have been recovered but we are still checking details” including their gender and time of death, a coastguard official said.

Several boats have recently been found drifing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), which separates Japan and the Korean peninsula.

A wooden boat containing a dead man wearing Korean-made boots was found near Japan on December 1, three days after another vessel with five corpses was discovered in the same area.

There was speculation that the five might have been North Korean fishermen who had weather or technical troubles and drifted out to sea.

Nine North Koreans – three men, three women and three children – were picked up by Japan’s coastguard in September 2011 after spending five days at sea. They later traveled to South Korea to settle there.