Japan arrests S. Korean captain for illegal fishing in EEZ

TOKYO, Jan. 13 Kyodo -
The Japan Coast Guard announced Thursday that the 39-year-old captain of a
South Korean crab-fishing vessel has been arrested on suspicion of illegal
fishing in Japan's exclusive economic zone.
It said the 29-ton vessel, originally detected around 12:30 a.m. in waters off
Hyogo Prefecture, was halted around 100 kilometers northwest of the Oki Islands
around 11:30 p.m. after it failed to comply with orders to halt and tried to
flee.
Japan's embassy in South Korea earlier said both Japanese and South Korean
maritime authorities boarded the vessel to jointly investigate the matter,
after which both sides concluded that the vessel had been engaged in illegal
operations.
Earlier, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, quoting a maritime police official,
had reported that a ''standoff'' involving one South Korea patrol vessel and
four Japanese ones had ensued after the South Korean fishing boat was nabbed
for entering Japanese waters.
The Yonhap report had noted that the vessel was halted in the vicinity of a
pair of islets known as Dokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, which are
controlled by Seoul but claimed by Tokyo.
==Kyodo