Japanese coastguard officials said an emergency operation involving seven government ships and aircraft had been launched. The coastguard said “dozens” of North Korean crew members had been rescued after the vessel went down. The collision took place 217 miles northwest of Noto peninsula within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
A coastguard spokesman said: “We don’t know how many were on board in the first place but we were informed that more than 20 were rescued. It appears probably no one else is left in the water.”
Satoshi Kuwahara, head of Japan’s Fisheries Agency’s enforcement division, said: “Normally, we police illegal fishing with such steps as using water cannon or showing messages on electronic displays.
“This time, the contact happened while we were warning the ship to sail away.”
Coastguard officials earlier said about 20 North Korean crew members were thrown into the sea after their steel boat collided with a Japanese Fisheries Agency inspection boat off the northern Japanese coast.
The coastguard said it was sorting out the number of fishermen and making sure nobody was missing.
The North Korean boat sank about half an hour after the collision in an area called Yamatotai, known as rich ground for squid fishing north west of the Noto Peninsula.
A regional coastguard office in northern Japan said the North Korean crew members had no life-threatening conditions and were being taken to land.