Photo: VCG

 
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday demanded that the Japanese government compensate for the infliction of material damage by sinking its fishing vessel and work out steps to prevent a recurrence of such incident.

In a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said a patrol ship of the Japanese Fisheries Agency "committed a gangster act" of sinking a DPRK vessel on Oct. 7 which was on a normal navigation in the waters of the East Sea of Korea.

The statement said the Japanese side cannot evade from its responsibility for this incident of sinking the vessel and threatening even the safety of the crew.

"If such an incident occurs again, Japan will face an undesirable consequence," it said.

Japanese media reported that a DPRK fishing vessel collided with a Japanese Fisheries Agency patrol boat Monday morning off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture and then sank into the sea. About 60 fishers were rescued and left the area on a different DPRK vessel that was nearby.