At least that's the assumption from the article...but damn, everyone on board dead?? That's creepy as hell

Unless something got lost in translation, it sounds they were killed onshore and then chopped up before being set adrift. Which is even creepier ...

The article reads like some 19thC mariners tale. Given the fact that they likely came from North Korea, I'm afraid the possibility of what you suggested is very real

I pictured 12'-14' rowboats.

This is pretty scary.

Because some skulls were without bodies there has to be more to the story than simply defectors starving on the water. Guess there could have been cannibalism but why leave the heads?

They have no other way to communicate. And perhaps the bodies on the ship were already dead when the boats were set adrift.

they may be poorly-equipped North Korean fishing boats that became stranded at sea and the crews perished. Since last year, 176 such boats have been found in the Sea of Japan by the Japanese coast guard, and testimony from survivors has indicated that most of those were NK fishing boats.

Which I guess for NK is not far off the mark

木造船漂着相次ぐ ２か月で２５人の遺体
日本海の沿岸や沖合でハングルが表記されるなどした木造船が相次いで見つかり、先月と今月の僅か２か月で合わせて２５人の遺体が確認されました。朝鮮半島から漂流してきたとみられる木造船はおととしからことしにかけ１７０隻余りに上っていて、専門家は「北朝鮮が水産事業に力を入れるなか多くの船が漁に出るものの、装備の不十分などによって遭難が相次いでいる」と指摘しています

25 bodies found on wooden fishing boats in 2 months
Along, and just off the coast of the Sea of Japan, wooden boats with Korean script have been found one after another, and in just this month and last month, 25 bodies have been confirmed. Because these wooden boats appear to have been washed up from the Korean Peninsula, that would bring the total of wayward wooden boats from last year to now to more than 170. Experts indicate that "As North Korea makes an effort to develop a fishing industry, many fishing boats are taking to sea, but because they are ill-equipped, they are continuously becoming stranded."

http://www.gekiyaku.com/archives/47040332.html