Fishing Expedition.(Brief Article)

North Korea earned a place in the "axis of evil" partly with its exports--missile sales to such countries as Iran and Syria, methamphetamines to Japan, counterfeit money to Middle Eastern countries. But perhaps the world should worry about Pyongyang's imports, too. The suspected North Korean spy ship sunk after a shoot- out with Japan Coast Guard vessels last December looked a lot like a Japanese fishing boat. Japanese investigators aren't sure if it was or not--it's on the bottom of the sea. But there is no doubt that lots of Japanese vessels are being smuggled into North Korea these days.

Lacking modern equipment, Pyongyang tries to buy it covertly--most often from Japan. Tokyo estimates that about 100 Japanese fishing boats have been sold illegally to North Korea over the last 15 years. Many are apparently used as models for North Korean vessels that run drugs or spy on Pyongyang's enemies. The boat sales don't pose much of a threat to Japan's national security. But the combination of lax export- control laws and advanced technology is becoming a serious problem. South Korean authorities claim that Japanese semiconductors and high- quality welding machines were used to build the North's three-stage liquid-fuel Taepodong missile. "North Koreans are very good at making use of Japanese high-tech goods for military purposes," says Diet member Ichita Yamamoto.

Japanese investigators are now curious about seven used squid-fishing boats that were supposed to have been exported to the Philippines in the late 1990s. The ships were docked at Nanao port in northern Japan, and when they left were accompanied by North Korean cargo ships that had also been at Nanao. Crew men from the cargo ships were seen boarding the fishing boats, say sources, and all of the boats motored off in the direction of North Korea.

Selling used ships to the North is not technically illegal in Japan, but the process is highly bureaucratic. Shipowners--who can receive as much as $125,000 per ship, and who would otherwise have to shell out up to $70,000 to have each boat scrapped--thus sell their ships to brokers who fake their final destinations. In June 2000, for ...