The situation has resulted in numerous shipwrecks, particularly in the Japanese archipelago where "ghost ships" with their dead crew has washed ashore.

North Korea's coastline of about 2,495 kilometers, mixture of warm and cold ocean currents, and many rivers, lakes, and streams make its potential for fishery development better than for most other countries.

[8] Not until the early 1960s, however, did the domestic fishing industry begin to expand rapidly, receiving increased investment in vessels, equipment, and port facilities.

[5] In 1977 the government reorganized the fishery administration and pledged to continue improving port facilities and building bigger and better trawlers and processing ships.

The completion of one 24,000-ton mother ship in celebration of the Sixth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea was an indication of the government's commitment to improving the fishing industry in the Second Seven-Year Plan.

[6][5] Through the 1970s and 1980s, in a bit to boot production by ideological means, Three Revolutions teams were sent to fishing villages for on-the-spot guidance and problem solving in close consultation with local personnel.

The government also called for widespread introduction of modern fishing implements and rationalizing the fishery labor system.

The slow progress in state investment, combined with the shortages of oil, are the main factors in the disappointing record of marine output in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[11] Unlike most countries, North Korea does not report its annual catch to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), of which it is a member.

[13] According to a 1988 agreement with the United Nations Development Programme, North Korea was to receive assistance in construction of a fish farm.

[17] The first joint venture North Korea established with China, in 1989, was a marine fishery products firm located in Chongjin that had an initial capitalization of US$1 million.

[11] Typically small boats unsuited for the high seas, they are sometimes shipwrecked, on Russian shores,[11] but particularly on the Japanese archipelago.

Several reasons have been suggested for their accumulation on the Japanese shores including weather patters, poor condition of the fleet, and originating from Russian and Chinese waters where they have been ill-equipped to sail.

North Korean fishermen who are deprived of quotas to the EEZ then resort to poaching in the waters of China and Russia.

[22] In the public distribution system of North Korea, ocean fishermen and others doing heavy work are allotted more grain than government and party officials engaged in less strenuous physical activities.

[23] Fishing boats may be owned by cooperative organizations – instead of directly by the state – according to the constitution of North Korea.

Not only is it heavily involved in fishing,[11] but conscription affects how people relate to the economic sector in complex ways.

[28] A struggle over the control of fisheries between the military and Jang Song-thaek was the final straw leading to the latter's downfall and purge in 2013.