VANCOUVER - The nine Korean sailors who dropped a boatload of Chinese migrants off the Queen Charlotte Islands appeared in a Victoria courtroom today under unusual circumstances. The judge ordered all staff and spectators to wear surgical masks for their own protection.

Judge Jean Harvey said the nine Korean sailors pose a health and safety concern for those in the courtroom. The judge offered no other explanation. Even the prosecution and defense lawyers said they didn't know the exact nature of the threat. But it was enough for the judge to ask the next stage of the court hearings be conducted by video conferencing.

The Koreans who filed into the courtroom looked healthy enough, each wearing dark green overalls and relying on an interpreter to explain the words of the judge and the lawyers. They're all facing charges of facing a person to disembark a ship at sea. Police are continuing to investigate whether other charges should be laid.

In spite of the health threat, police say the Koreans are not being quarantined and will be locked up with other prisoners also awaiting trial. So for now, the nature of their condition remains uncertain.