[imText1]My hometown is Jinju, a city in the South Kyungsang province full of history. I graduated from an average school in Jinju, the Pusan Fisheries University, and then joined Korea’s first deep-sea fishery company, the Jedong Industrial Securities Company. I based my home at a tuna fishing ground on the South Pacific island of Samoa with the captain and his first mate. My work with the sea ultimately became the catalyst to the creation of my business with North Korea.
As the largest and most powerful countries continued to claim the 200 miles of fishing waters as their own, the claim of the smaller countries decreased. The Korean deep-sea fishing industry continuously experienced difficulties, and added to the challenges that I, as a fisherman, also experienced. I departed for the U.S. in October, 1976, determined to cultivate my dream of fishing in the U.S, and worked various jobs for several years before a real opportunity arose.
I worked on a scallop fishing boat in East New Jersey, a shrimp fishing boat in Houstin Texas, I established a sablefish fishing boat and worked as captain for 2 years in San Francisco, and worked as captain for 2 years in collaboration with Korea and U.S. Alaskan Pollack fishing boats in the Alaskan Bering Strait.
While negotiations between the former Soviet Union’s Kamchatka coastal fishery, and Moscow’s maritime companies were in progress, I received an invitation to visit Moscow as the 1988 Seoul Olympics came to a close. At the time, there was a fisheries agreement between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in relation to the Alaskan King Crab caught in the Kamchatka fishing grounds, but no ties had been fostered between Korea and the Soviet Union, and relations with the U.S. were strained to the point that it was not possible for an American to travel to the Soviet Union. As the Korean deep-sea fishing industry was experiencing difficulty in regard to fishing ground regulations, negotiations were in the works with the Soviet Union to create a new set of regulations, and I took the opportunity to go to Moscow and participate.
While in the Soviet Union, I discovered that under the conditions in place with the North Korean government, every year 20 tons of fish (10 tons of Alaskan Pollack, 10 tons of codfish, flatfish, small fish etc.) are permitted to be caught from designated fishing grounds by North Korea. However, each year, North Korea was unable to catch even half of the alloted amount.
Under the banner of Third-world countries, the discussion continued regarding the possibility of increasing Kamchatka’s fishing grounds into part of North Korea’s designated waters. In Moscow, I was introduced to a joint-venture company from Singapore, and after completing my 10 day trip to Moscow, I went to Singapore. The objective was to aim for cooperation between Korean fishing boats and Russian invested Singaporean companies in order to increase the Soviet’s fishing grounds.
North Korea Cannot Catch Even Half of the Alloted Amount
At the time, I thought that the problem could be solved if an agreement was reached with North Korea to catch the remaining amount of fish that they were unable to catch each year. Then the matter of South Korea’s Alaskan Pollack would be resolved, and it would be a great opportunity for South Korea’s fishing to expand into Russia’s fishing waters.”
For a while, I traveled often between Moscow, Singapore and Korea, but to little success. However, as I was strolling the city of Moscow, I ran into 3 North Korean women dressed shabbily and walking down the street. As I tried to speak with them, they ran away, but seeing them gave me the idea of contacting the North Korean embassy. After locating the phone number for the embassy I called them immediately.
“Hello?” I said. “My name is Kim Chan Ku and I am a U.S.-Korean with U.S. citizenship living in Los Angeles. I am here working on the expansion of the Kamchatka fishing grounds. I have something to discuss in relation to maritime operations and would like to visit the embassy. Would this be possible?”
After a long silence, the person responded tentatively, “What do you want with the embassy?”
“I want to visit Pyongyang in relation to maritime operations and thought I should first contact the embassy.”
The person asked inquisitive questions about my hometown and personal affairs, and then coldly refused my request visiting the embassy, saying that I had no purpose in visiting the embassy, nor had any valid reason to visit Pyongyang.
On completion of my visit to Moscow, I returned to the U.S. looking for opportunities to visit Pyongyang. During this time, I came across the delightful news that U.S. government policy permitted U.S.-Korean citizens to visit North Korea. I made immediate preparations to go, and boarded a plane for Pyongyang.
