Russian coast guards deny shooting at Japanese fishing ship near Kuril Islands
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. February 16. KAZINFORM The Russian Coast Guard rejected on Wednesday Japanese media reports that guards opened fire on a Japanese fishing vessel off the disputed South Kuril islands; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.
Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday, referring to the country's security services, that Russian coast guards opened fire with illumination shells on a Japanese fishing vessel near the Habomai Island.
"There was no shooting on Japanese fishing vessels. There were even no warning shots fired," a spokesman for the Coast Guard department in Russia's Far East said.
Last year on January 29, two Japanese fishing vessels entered Russia's territorial waters off Kunashir Island and ignored warning shots from a Russian guards' helicopter. As a result, the guards had to open direct fire at the vessels. The fishing boats returned to their port of Rausu with numerous bullet holes on their hulls.
Tokyo's continued claim over four South Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai) has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty to end World War II hostilities.
The four southern islands of the chain to the northeast of Japan were annexed by the Soviet Union after World War II.