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Posted on 07/16/2003 11:27:04 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Coastguards swarm over N.Korea ship entering Japan
TOKYO, July 17 (Reuters) - A North Korean cargo ship steamed into a port in northern Japan on Thursday under the watchful gaze of dozens of officials standing ready to inspect it.
The 27,050-tonne Hwangkumsan arrived empty at Naoetsu port on the Japan Sea coast to collect a cargo of about 40 used cars.
Shortly after it docked about 30 immigration, coast guard and customs officers boarded it for an inspection which officials said was on a scale "larger than usual."
Japan tightened inspections of North Korean ships after a North Korean defector said a luxuriously outfitted ferry had been used for espionage and to bring missile parts from Japan.
North Korea, angry at the security clampdown, has recently cancelled four planned visits to Japan by the Mangyongbong-92, the only direct passenger ship link between the nations.
North Korea has bitterly criticised the stricter Japanese security, saying it constitutes sanctions.
Pro-Pyongyang ethnic Koreans in Japan, who are mostly descendents of Koreans brought to Japan in the first half of the 20th century as forced labour, use the ferry for trips to visit relatives, often taking cash to the poverty-stricken North.
Talks on opening diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea have stalled over issues relating to abductions of Japanese by North Korean agents and the North's missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
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And Kim Jong il is probably miffed as to why a little thing like this could get in the way of international friendship...
To completely seal off Japan from North Korean amphetamines, terorists/bombers, espionage agents, kidnappers, and counterfeit cash, they would literally have to abolish the JAPANESE YAKUZA, (organized crime), and everyone knows as long as there is such a thing as a local, prefectural or national politician (particularly Liberal Democratic Party) or police chief in Japan, this will NEVER HAPPEN.
They will find a way around any roadblock to keep getting these things into Japan and getting pachinko money out to enrich the uranium and improve the missile guidance programs.
[Say, enjoy a few maguros, sabas, kampachis and ikas in Nippon for me, sushiman.]
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