Japanese officials are investigating the gruesome arrival of ghost ships laden with rotting human corpses and skeletons.
Almost a dozen such vessels have mysteriously drifted into the waters off Japan since October of this year, but none of the victims have yet been identified.
Investigators are speculating that the small, ill equipped and mostly-wooden ships hail from North Korea which has recently stepped up ocean fishing amid a looming threat of food shortages.
Reporters from both the NHK news station and Tokyo Broadcasting System looked on last week as one such floating tomb was being towed into Fukui harbor, and later said they saw Korean writing on it.
There was also three sets of decomposing remains onboard the badly-damaged craft.