Top court confirms jail sentences for Chinese fishermen

By Lee Kyung-min

The Supreme Court Friday upheld the lower courts’ prison sentences handed down to two Chinese skippers convicted of illegal fishing in the East Sea and injuring local Coast Guard officials last year. It also confirmed the confiscation their two boats.

The two, surnamed Wang and Lynn, received three-year and three-and-a-half year sentences respectively.

It also confirmed the sentences handed down to two of their subordinates, whose identities were withheld, sentenced to two years and one and a half years, respectively, suspended for two years.

The four were convicted of causing bodily harm to the Coast Guards, who were trying to rein them in from fishing in waters in the West Sea off the coast of Gunsan, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul, in December 2013.

They were also found guilty of fishing 1,000 kilograms of pollack in local waters.

The court rejected their appeal to overturn the seizure of the boats.

“The penalty was fair. The lower courts did not misconstrue the legal principles for confiscation," it said in its ruling.

Chinese fishing boats often cross into South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea in search of abundant fish stock, regularly leading to violent clashes between Chinese crews and the Coast Guard here.

In 2011, a Coast Guard officer was killed by Chinese fishermen.

The Coast Guard said it arrested 183 Chinese fishermen in 2013 over illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea.