SEOUL - A Chinese fishing captain fatally stabbed a South Korean coast guard officer and wounded another yesterday after they stopped his boat for illegally fishing in crab-rich South Korean waters, officials said.
South Korea, which had asked China’s ambassador just last week to try to rein in illegal Chinese fishing its waters, lodged a protest with the diplomat over the latest episode - the first deadly clash between the South Korean coast guard and Chinese fishermen in three years.
China’s Foreign Ministry urged Seoul to safeguard the rights of detained Chinese fishermen. However, an analyst said the case was unlikely to affect overall ties significantly between the countries.
Officers from two coast guard ships boarded the fishing boat over suspicions it was illegally operating in Yellow Sea waters rich in blue crabs, anchovies, and croaker when the captain attacked with an unidentified weapon, coast guard spokesman Kim Dong Jin said.
A South Korean officer stabbed in the side was taken by helicopter to a hospital in the port city of Incheon but later died, Kim said. The other officer was stabbed in the abdomen and was to undergo surgery. The Chinese captain had minor injuries from the fight and was also taken to the hospital, Kim said.
The weapon was not identified. Besides the captain, eight other Chinese fishermen on the boat were arrested and taken to Inchon, the coast guard said in a statement.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said yesterday in Beijing that the ministry was ready to work with South Korea on the case. He told a daily news conference that Chinese authorities had taken steps to better educate fishermen “to prohibit cross-border fishing and irregularities.’’
Liu called on Seoul to “fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese fishermen and provide them with due humanitarian treatment.’’
Last week, South Korean authorities raised fines levied on foreign fishing vessels caught operating in Seoul’s self-declared exclusive economic zone, an apparent reflection of the government’s impatience with a rising number of Chinese boats found fishing in the waters. Seoul is expected to pressure Beijing harder over illegal fishing, said Lee Chang Hyung of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.