Soviets Free 169 Japanese Fishermen

TOKYO — Twelve North Korean-flagged, Japanese-owned fishing vessels and their crewmen on Friday left the Soviet port of Nakhodka, where they had been held for two months for poaching Soviet salmon, the Foreign Ministry said.

The boats were heading for North Korea’s port of Hungnam.

In Moscow, the Soviet news agency Tass said the ships’ captains estimated their vessels were carrying 500 tons of fish, worth about $8 million.

The ships have North Korean officers, but about three-quarters of their crews are Japanese. A Japanese spokesman said North Korea promised to return the 169 Japanese to Japan “without delay.”

The seizure of the boats led to an unusual tug-of-war between the Soviet Union, North Korea and Japan over fishing in salmon-rich waters off the Soviet coast.

Japan has a fishing agreement with the Soviet Union and there is a quota for Soviet salmon. North Korean has no quota, but its vessels were sometimes allowed to fish in Soviet waters, and experts said this may have enticed Japanese operators to put their vessels under the North Korean flag.