One person has gone missing after a small boat with four people on board sank while being towed by a North Korean cargo ship off northwestern Japan on the morning (local time) of Thursday, September 17.
The boat was being towed by the ship identified as the North Korean-flagged Kum Ya when it sank within Japan's exclusive economic zone off the coast of Shimane Prefecture at around 03:00 on Thursday, causing its four occupants to fall overboard.
The Japan Coast Guard deployed vessels and aircraft to the area to conduct search and rescue operations.
Two people were pulled out of the water at around 12:15 while a third was recovered less than an hour later. No trace of the fourth occupant has yet been found.
The coast guard said two of the recovered individuals were conscious while the third was presumed dead due to the absence of vital signs.
Japanese authorities are still working to determine why the boat was in the area and to identify the nationalities of the four people who were on the boat, including the individual who is still missing.