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President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea speaks after hearing a report from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries held at its temporary offices in Busan on Dec. 23, 2025. (pool photo)

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung issued a call on Wednesday for an intensive crackdown on illegal fishing by Chinese boats.

Lee also cited examples of foreign navies sinking such vessels.

During a briefing at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries complex in Busan that afternoon, Lee asked Jang In-sik, the deputy commissioner general of the Korea Coast Guard, about the situation with illegal fishing by Chinese boats in South Korean waters.

“I’ve heard the Indonesian navy sank a few [illegal] fishing boats, and they haven’t been coming [to Indonesian waters] since,” the president also remarked. 

“We may not be able to do that, but we need to show a stern response,” he continued.

While he confessed thinking that it was “extreme to shell” the boats, the president went on to ask if there aren’t policing vessels these days that can “ram them.”

He went on to describe the behavior of the illegal fishing boats as “quite despicable.”

“They commit illegal acts and then make iron window bars and act threateningly to avoid policing. In cases like that, we need to take more powerful action,” he said.

Lee further called for an increase in related financial penalties.

“We need to send the clear message that if you come into Korea’s waters and fish illegally, you’ll have a lot of money taken from you and you’ll get detained,” he said.

Citing situations where illegal fishing boats band together in teams to split the costs of penalties, he added, “We need to raise [the penalties] enough to where they’re tough to pay even if everyone chips in.”

This is not the first time Lee has called for intensive response measures to illegal Chinese fishing boats.

As a candidate in the 2022 presidential election, he held a roundtable while visiting the Five West Sea Islands Guard Unit in Incheon on Dec. 30, 2021. During the event, he stressed the need for “diplomatic efforts to ensure no unnecessary conflicts occur with China,” but added that “we need to respond on a principled basis to illegal fishing by Chinese boats, as we have to uphold our territorial rights and maritime sovereignty and protect our fishers’ marine resources.”

He also said at the time that he had “heard that illegal fishing fell by nearly 90% after Indonesia took measures to sink [boats] in addition to capturing them.”

Commenting on Lee’s remarks that day, a senior Blue House official said, “The Chinese government is also cracking down on illegal fishing. President Lee’s remarks today are something that he can say as a head of state.”

By Goh Gyoung-ju, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]