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Friday, December 25, 1998 Published at 06:36 GMT

World: Asia-Pacific

Japanese find the bodies of three North Korean sailors

The bodies of three men wearing khaki military uniforms and badges washed up on the northern coast of Japan on Friday.

It is thought the men could have been crew members from a North Korean semi-submersible vessel which was sunk on 18 December after a firefight with South Korean patrol boats in their waters.

Only one body was recovered after the shootout involving the vessel, which normally would carry crew of five to eight.

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The bodies were lashed by a rope to a wooden raft which washed up on the shore of Takahama on the Sea of Japan, about 500 miles (800km) west of Tokyo.

The North Korean semi-submersible was spotted off the port city of Yosu in South Korea late on 17 December and was chased by 12 South Korean navy ships and three fighters.

It sank after a pre-dawn firefight some 100 km (60 miles) south of Koje Island, about 460 km (290 miles) from the border between the two Koreas.

Last week's firefight was the latest in a series of North Korean intrusions into southern waters over the past six months:

in November the navy fired warning shots at a suspected North Korean spy ship before chasing it across the water demarcation line;

in July, the body of a North Korean agent was found washed up on a South Korean beach three weeks after a Northern submarine was captured with nine dead North Koreans inside.