North Korean Signals of Concern: Disappearance of “Shadow Fleet” Could Spell Big Trouble

A study by the nonprofit Global Fishing Watch found that the total number of days North Korean vessels spent fishing for squid in Russian waters dropped by 95%, from 146,800 to 6,600. Squid fishing in North Korean territorial waters also declined significantly. writes CNN.

These fishing boats belong to the so-called “shadow” fleet of North Korea. The ships are so named because they do not convey their whereabouts to the public and do not appear in public surveillance systems, often in violation of international maritime regulations. Many of these ships, which are poorly prepared for long-distance travel, have been launched off the coast of Japan in recent years. Sometimes dead sailors were found in them.

Global Fishing Watch used satellite imagery and other marine surveillance technologies to track the number of vessels fishing for squid during the fishing season, which runs from May to November. Squid fishing is one of the simplest operations that can be observed from a distance, since it is usually carried out at night using powerful lighting equipment.

Squid is popular throughout Northeast Asia. The growing demand for them has recently threatened the survival of the endangered squid, notes Global Fishing Watch. In North Korea, squid are tanned, marinated, cooked on the grill or heated in a pan over a fire, or dried and served as a snack.

Jaeyoon Park, a researcher at Global Fishing Watch, said the unprecedented decline in the number of fishing vessels appears to be the result of tighter entry and exit controls introduced by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to prevent COVID-19 from entering the country.

Experts say Kim Jong Un blindly closed North Korea’s borders last year and severed the last delicate ties with the outside world because, knowing full well about Pyongyang’s weak health system, he realized that an outbreak of coronavirus could simply devastate the country.

North Korea claims that no cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country, but experts have no doubt that such allegations are mere propaganda. However, the big waves of the virus in the country appear to have been avoided anyway. This was due to the strict measures to combat the epidemic, controls on the movement of people and the closure of borders.

True, these preventive measures turned out to be expensive. Trade between Beijing and Pyongyang, a lifeline for the economy, many experts believe North Korea needs to protect the population from hunger, fell more than 80 percent in 2020, according to data released by the Chinese customs service on Monday. .

North Korea’s food shortage currently affects nearly 10.1 million people. “Urgently needed food aid,” according to a report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in April 2020.

Pyongyang often fails to properly care for the country’s population without starving due to poor economic governance, international sanctions, a lack of arable land, and a lack of modern agricultural equipment. But now, with the tightening of border restrictions and heavy rains that have flooded farmland and destroyed crops this summer, the situation has certainly worsened.

While it may not seem difficult to buy food now, the supply process is hampered by more tensions than ever since the famine that has plagued the country since the 1990s, says Chad O’Carrollis, director of the research and policy consulting firm. Korea Risk Group.

“We can safely say that there is a massive shortage of some types of food across the country,” Cap. O’Carrollis.

Fishing away from home

Due to the cargo, North Korean fishermen often operate illegally outside of the country’s territorial waters.

Pyongyang is believed to have sold territorial fishing rights to other countries, despite the fact that fishing in North Korean waters or trade in fish caught here violates international law, say United Nations investigators.

The trade, which is estimated at about $ 300 million. dollars (about 246 million euros) a year, 2017 was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council. It was part of an attempt to punish the Kim Jong Uno regime for its ongoing ballistic missile tests that year.

A breakthrough study published by Global Fishing Watch in 2020 found that China-bound squid fishing vessels were operating in North Korean waters, displacing North Korea’s own fleet and forcing many surviving vessels to sail far from home and into deep. in harder and more dangerous waters.

Many have not survived that trip.

Global Fishing Watch scientist J. Park says that squid fishing in the territorial waters of Russia and North Korea declined dramatically in 2020. Global Fishing Watch found that during peak season, from September to late November, the North Korean waters were 50 percent. fewer ships from China than at the same time in previous years.

However, North Korean squid fishing boats did not take advantage of this advantage. Squid fishing by North Korean vessels in its own territorial waters has not intensified, so the generally abundant supply of squid to North Korea in 2020 is likely to “disappear entirely,” Park said.