The trawler sank on Saturday of last week after it rammed into a patrol boat of South Korea's coast guard. The captain of the trawler died in the incident.
The coast guard was cracking down on about 50 Chinese boats operating illegally in South Korea's exclusive economic zone in the Yellow Sea.
8 fishermen were rescued from the trawler. 5 of them were picked up by nearby Chinese boats and 3 were detained by South Korea's coast guard.
The coast guard questioned the 3 fishermen on suspicion of obstructing the duty of civil servants, saying they deliberately slammed their trawler into the patrol ship.
South Korean authorities decided not to charge the 3 men because of their lack of active involvement and handed them over to the Chinese Embassy on Saturday.
The Chinese government had reacted sharply to the incident, calling for compensation for the sinking of the trawler. China says South Korea has no right to control the area because it should be tentatively controlled by both countries.
The South Korean action is seen as aimed at preventing the row from escalating into a serious confrontation between the 2 countries.
On the other hand, the South Korean coast guard says it will ask China to take punitive action against fishermen on another Chinese trawler. Those fishermen wounded 4 South Korean coast guard personnel with iron pipes and fled the scene during the raid.
Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:15:00 +0900(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)
taken from NHK
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