Two South Korean crew members of a South Korean fishing boat that sank in waters off southern Japan remain missing despite continued search operations by the Japanese Coast Guard.

Japan’s state-run broadcaster NHK said that Japanese patrol boats had launched search and rescue operations at the request of South Korea, but the two missing South Korean sailors have yet to be found.

A fire broke out on the South Korean fishing boat "2006 Nam Seong” at around 3:20 a.m. on Tuesday in waters about 250 kilometers off the coast of Minamisatsuma City in Kagoshima Prefecture. The Japanese Coast Guard has rescued eight of ten South Korean and Vietnamese crew members.