WORLD : Soviets Send Salmon Poachers to N. Korea Over Tokyo Protest

The Soviet Union today sent 169 Japanese fishermen caught poaching salmon in Soviet waters to communist North Korea, many against their will and the request of the Japanese government, Japanese officials said.

Japan, which had requested its citizens be allowed to return directly to Japan amid fear the fishermen might be imprisoned in North Korea, immediately protested to the Soviets. North Korea, for its part, promised to send the crew back to Japan promptly.

The Soviet move comes on the heels of Japan’s refusal at the Houston economic summit to back a West German and French plan to give $15 billion in aid to the Soviet Union.

In late May, Soviet officials seized 12 ships sailing under the North Korean flag for poaching salmon off the Soviet Union’s Far East coast. A Japanese company had leased the ships and their crews to North Korea, and the vessels were controlled by North Koreans.

Japanese ships are subject to an 11,000-ton annual quota on salmon in Soviet waters, and it appeared that putting the vessels under the North Korean flag was an attempt to circumvent the limit under a deal struck with the North Koreans.