A South Korean man arrested for allegedly buying stolen cars may have been linked to a North Korean spy boat that sank in the East China Sea after a shootout with the Japan Coast Guard in 2001, police sources said Monday.
On Sunday, Fukuoka and Tokyo police arrested Woo Si Yun, 57, on suspicion of knowingly buying eight stolen vehicles in May 2001, they said.
A cell phone retrieved from the ship, which was salvaged, had call records, including Woo's cell phone number and telephone numbers of his relatives, the sources said.
Woo had the vehicles transported to a storage facility in Shingu, Fukuoka Prefecture, and planned to have them taken to North Korea aboard a trading company's freighter.