When the Kirogi docked at Wonsan, port officials immediately came on board to examine passports and luggage. The twenty Zainichi Korean passengers were duly checked and brought on shore, accompanied by Chongryon Kim. They were mostly elderly Koreans living in Japan who still felt a close affiliation with their kin in North Korea, unlike the younger generation of Zainichi Koreans. Their relatives had already been brought to Wonsan, and were waiting for them at an undisclosed location. They would be given thirty-six hours to spend with them, after which they would come back to the port again and return to Japan.
The crew of the Kirogi would be staying on board the ship, in the meantime. The captain wasn't willing to grant anyone shore leave for such a short journey. Shore leave, he said, was for sailors who had been at sea for weeks; but the journey from Niigata City to Wonsan had lasted barely more than a day. It would have been impossible for anyone to go ashore, anyway, because in North Korea it was illegal for foreigners to move around on their own without a government minder, someone who would keep a sharp eye on you and see that you only went to approved places, and didn't mix with any of the locals.
Shinsou at first received this piece of news with elation: here was the perfect excuse to give Nakajima as to why he couldn't help him with his personal affairs – the captain would not grant him shore leave!
Shortly after the Zainichi Korean passengers had departed, Shinsou, who happened to be near the gangway, saw a group of four men trying to board the ship. The deckhand on gangway watch was about to stop them when the captain appeared, and waved them in.
"Who are they?" Shinsou asked one of the other deckhands.
"They always come to remove the mineral water from the hold," said the deckhand, "Didn't you notice? The bottles the dog is guarding are good mineral water, not the large, industrial-type bottles found in the rest of the hold that we've been distributing. They belong to a popular brand in Japan, and can probably be sold to the elite in Pyongyang for a good price. The upper class there think it's stylish to drink mineral water imported from abroad. The captain probably gets a cut of the profits for bringing it over."
Shinsou hadn't noticed that the bottled water in Yoshi's part of the hold was in proper sealed bottles. He thought it odd that anyone could make a good profit out of something like mineral water. He watched as the men started pushing crates out on trolleys.
"Doesn't Yoshi-chan bite them?" he asked.
"Nah," said the deckhand, shrugging, "They give him some treat – dog biscuits, or something. And he usually stops acting territorial whenever he sees that the ship has reached its destination."
Shinsou watched as the men loaded the crates onto a truck near the wharf and drove off.
He wondered where Nakajima was, and whether his supervisor would make him brainwash the captain into letting him go onshore. However, Shinsou soon discovered that Nakajima, who was a seasoned veteran when it came to operating in North Korea, had already arranged everything.
The next morning Shinsou was partnered with another deckhand to do gangway watch duty, since he was new. He hadn't been there long when a burly individual, armed with several documents and attired in the dark suit often worn by government minders, came up the gangway. The senior deckhand checked the documents, and then hurried off to get the captain, a frightened look on his face. The minder was carrying a letter signed by the local head of the secret police, or Bowibu.
Captain Jang's face went pale when he saw the letter, and he glared at Shinsou.
"Your aunt's brother-in-law's cousin is the local Bowibu head?" he said hoarsely, "Why didn't you tell me?"
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Crossing The East Sea
फैनफिक्शनHitoshi Shinsou has just graduated from UA and joined the Tokyo Intelligence Directorate as a covert operative. His first assignment takes him to North Korea.
