North Koreans seize Chinese fishing boat

[cali]

China has urged North Korea to release a Chinese fishing boat and its crew, state media have reported, after its owner announced it had been seized more than two weeks ago.

Yu Xuejun wrote on his microblog on Saturday that armed North Koreans took the boat on 5 May in what he says were Chinese waters and that they demanded a ransom of 600,000 yuan (£64,000).

Xinhua subsequently reported that Chinese diplomats in Pyongyang received Yu’s request for help on 10 May. Official Jiang Yaxian told the Chinese state news agency the embassy had asked the North Korean foreign ministry to free the boat and the fishermen as soon as possible and had urged the DPRK to ensure the safety of the Chinese crew and their property.

<snip>

North Korean forces and Chinese fishermen often played a cat-and-mouse game, with incursions over the line by both sides, he said. Other cases had not become public because boat owners simply paid up but this time the ransom appeared to be much higher than usual.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/20/north-koreans-seize-chinese-fishing-boat

[Turbineguy]

1. Those wiley Chinese,

everybody knows they are trying to steal DPRK's poverty and starvation.