Police in Hokkaido said Saturday that three members of a North Korean fishing boat have been arrested on suspicion of plundering a remote fishing hut.
On Friday the crew cut ropes tethering their wooden boat to a Japan Coast Guard vessel near Hakodate port and tried to flee, but the vessel was recaptured later that day.
The boat had been impounded on Nov. 30, two days after being spotted washed ashore on an uninhabited island off the town of Matsumae. The police have been questioning the 10 crew members.