Chinese fisherman shot dead in clash with S. Korea coastguard

A Chinese fisherman was shot dead Friday in a clash that saw South Korean coastguard officers board a number of Chinese vessels suspected of illegal fishing, officials said. A South Korean coastguard spokesman confirmed the fisherman’s death, but refused to specify the precise cause until a full autopsy had been performed. But he confirmed that live rounds had been fired during the incident, which took place Friday morning around 130 kilometres off the western island of Wangdeung in the Yellow Sea. The South Korean Yonhap news agency identified the dead man as a 45-year-old, surnamed Song, and said the coastguard had boarded his vessel in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone. An injured Song was taken to hospital at Mokpo on the mainland, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

There was an incident during a crackdown on illegal fishing by Chinese fishing boats.

A South Korean coastguard spokesman

An emergency ward staffer at the hospital told AFP that X-rays had shown a bullet lodged in Song’s chest. “His lungs were full of blood”, the staffer said. China protested what it called an example of “violent law enforcement” and urged Seoul to bring the perpetrator to justice. Illegal fishing by Chinese boats is common in South Korean waters, and scores of vessels are seized every year. In December 2010 a Chinese boat overturned and sank in the Yellow Sea after ramming a South Korean coastguard vessel. Two Chinese crewmen were killed. The following year, a coastguard officer was stabbed to death in a struggle with Chinese sailors.

Asia-Pacific