LU STOUT: Japan's coast guard is dealing with a haunting and perplexing problem. Boats have been drifting into its waters carrying corpses. The decaying bodies of 22 people have turned up so far. Paula Hancocks reports.</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: An old wooden boat carrying a gruesome cargo, the latest of a dozen ghost ships found drifting off the coast of Japan recently with badly decomposing bodies on board. 22 corpses in just four weeks, some described as skeletal having drifted on the open sea for months. Japan's coast guard assumes the boats are from North Korea, a hand painted sign that reads Korean People's Army, the north's military, a tattered piece of cloth that may have once been the North Korean flag. But were the passengers of these doomed vessels defectors fleeing an oppressive regime make a living. Kim Jong-un has been visiting fisheries recently looking delighted with what he sees and pushing his people to catch more. In a country where the UN says over a quarter are severely malnourished and there are a few ways to make money, fishing is key. But some of these victims are likely defectors say experts, increased security along the border with China since Kim Jong-un took power has made escape by land far more dangerous.</s>ANDREI LANKOV, PROFESSOR: Many people who a few years ago would walk across the boarder to China now have no choice but to escape by boat and obviously, many such escapes don't end up well.</s>HANCOCKS: The mystery is grim but not new. 283 boats have been found over the past five years, the coastguard has not said how many bodies were on board. Most of these boats are basic and barely sea worthy with engines not strong enough to steer against the current and no GPS system to help them find their way home, effectively turning them into floating coffins for desperate passengers. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.</s>LU STOUT: Now thousands in India are struggling to cope as a deluge of rain floods large areas of Chennai. We'll have an update on the relief effort and the upcoming weather conditions next.
Boats Laden With Corpses Wash Up on Japan's Shores.