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Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea（North Korea）have yet to establish diplomatic relations, the biggest obstacle being the suspected abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. Despite the best efforts of the Japanese Government and political parties in Japan, this problem has remained unsettled with no dramatic progress being made. Then at the end of last year, the North Korean Red Cross gave unilateral notice of the suspension of investigations into the whereabouts of missing persons, making progress on the issue even more difficult. It is now almost a quarter of a century since the first of the abductions in 1977. Mindful that the highest duty of government is to defend the lives and property of the people, we must make every possible effort to resolve the abduction issue. We therefore express, both to the people of Japan and the international community, our strong resolve that there should be no normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea without a resolution of the abduction issue, and shall persist in our efforts to obtain the understanding and cooperation of the international community and to work toward a solution of this issue. |
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There have to date been seven incidents involving the abduction of 10 individuals that are almost without doubt the work of North Korea. The first was the abduction near the coast of a schoolgirl in Niigata Prefecture in November, 1977, and was followed by a series of abductions of couples near the coast in the prefectures of Fukui, Niigata and Kagoshima between July and August, 1978. There was also an attempted abduction near the coast in Toyama Prefecture in August, 1978, and it is not hard to imagine that these incidents are just a fraction of the total number that have occurred. It is thought that the main purpose of these abductions was to use the victims as instructors for North Korean agents to pass as Japanese and to enable agents to infiltrate into Japan posing as Japanese nationals in their place. Such inhumane acts must not be tolerated. |
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Date: September 19, 1977 Place: Ishikawa Prefecture Victim: Mr. Y. K. (52）* *Name withheld at family's request |
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In this case, an arrest was made by the Ishikawa prefectural police in September, 1977. Co-opted by a North Korean agent, a Korean resident of Japan with permanent residency status who had been engaged in gathering intelligence on U.S. forces in Japan and anti-Republic of Korea（South Korea） activities was instructed to "send to North Korea an unmarried Japanese male aged between around 45 and 50." In September, 1977, he led a Japanese man he knew living in Tokyo to the Ushitsu coast in Ishikawa, where the man was handed over to another North Korean agent who had come to pick him up in a North Korean spy ship. The police arrested the Korean resident in question, and seized evidence corroborating his involvement in espionage, such as tables of random numbers and codes. The suspect also gave a statement giving specific details of the background, motive and circumstances of the abduction. |
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Date : November 15, 1977 Place: Niigata Prefecture Victim: Ms. Megumi Yokota (13) |
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This abduction occurred in the evening of November 15, 1977, when a 13-year-old schoolgirl, Megumi Yokota, was on her way home after extracurricular activities at school. She disappeared after parting from a friend several hundred meters from the shore, and nothing has been heard of her since. The police gathered every possible piece of evidence during their investigation, interviewing the victim's family, witnesses and others concerned regarding the circumstances around the time of her disappearance, making inquiries in the area, and comparing the details of the case with similar incidents. Highly reliable information concerning Megumi's disappearance has been shared by the South Korean authorities and other agencies concerned, including information provided by the former North Korean spy, Ahn Myung Jin, who fled to South Korea. |
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Date: 1978-79 Victim: Ms. Y. T. (23-24)* *Name withheld at family's request |
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This is the case of Lee Un Hye, who instructed the terrorist responsible for the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight, Kim Hyung Hee. Kim testified that she was "taught how to pass as Japanese in North Korea by a Japanese woman called Lee Un Hye, who was abducted from Japan around 1978 or 1979." She also stated "Lee Un Hye said she was taken from Japan by boat." The National Police Agency obtained a Statement directly from Kim in South Korea and also conducted inquiries in Japan. They found as a result that it was extremely likely that Lee Un Hye was a Japanese woman from Saitama Prefecture. |
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Date: July 7-8, 1978
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Yasushi Chimura went out on a date with his fiancee, Fukie Hamamoto, but failed to return home. The small car they went in was discovered at an observatory near the coast with the keys still in the ignition. Fukie never returned home either. Given that a date had been set for their marriage and their great happiness at the time, they had no reason to commit suicide or run away from home. The police interviewed those concerned, made local inquiries, compared the incident with the abductions of couples occurring immediately afterwards, also near the coast, in Niigata (on July 31) and Kagoshima (on August 12) and the attempted abduction of a couple in Toyama (on August 15), and shared information with other agencies, including the South Korean authorities, and all the evidence points to the couple's abduction. |
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Date: July 31, 1978
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On July 31, 1978 in Kashiwazaki City in Niigata Prefecture, Kaoru Hasuike borrowed a bicycle telling his family he was just popping out for a moment, never to be heard from again. Yukiko Okudo left her workplace telling her coworkers she was going on a date, and she, too, disappeared. Kaoru's bicycle was discovered in front of a library several hundred meters from the coast, but the couple remains missing to this day. The police interviewed those involved, made local inquiries, compared the incident with the abductions of couples immediately before and after, also near the coast, in Fukui (on July 7) and Kagoshima (on August 12) and the attempted abduction of a couple in Toyama (on August 15), and shared information with other agencies, including the South Korean authorities, and all the evidence points to the couple's abduction. |
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Date: August 12, 1978
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Shuichi Ichikawa went out saying he was going with a companion to see the sun set on the beach, but never returned home. On August 14, his car was found, still locked, near a campsite by the same beach. Rumiko Masumoto also went out telling her family she was going to watch the sun set on the beach with a companion, but failed to return. In neither case was there any motive for suicide or running away from home. The police interviewed those involved, made local inquiries, compared the incident with the abductions of couples occurring immediately before, also near the coast, in Fukui (on July 7) and Niigata (on July 31) and the attempted abduction of a couple in Toyama (on August 15), and shared information with other agencies, including the South Korean authorities, and all the evidence points to the couple's abduction. |
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Date: Mid-June 1980 Place: Miyazaki Prefecture Victim: Mr. T. H. (43)* *Name withheld at family's request |
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This case was announced by the South Korean authorities in June, 1985. A North Korean agent, Shin Kwang Su, was instructed by North Korea to bring a Japanese male living in Osaka to the Aoshima coast in Miyazaki Prefecture in June, 1980, where the man was abducted by a waiting spy ship. Shin apparently then reentered Japan disguised as the victim, having illegally obtained a passport in the victim's name, and traveled abroad on a number of occasions to establish operations overseas and engage in anti-South Korean activities. When the incident was announced, the Japanese police traveled to South Korea to work closely with the authorities there. An investigation was also launched in Japan to gather evidence, as a result of which it was concluded there were "extremely strong grounds for suspecting an abduction by North Korea." |
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Date: August 15, 1978 Place: Toyama Prefecture Victims: Mr. Y. T. (27) and Ms. S. S. (20) |
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A couple walking on the edge of the coast were walking back through a belt of trees planted as a windbreak to return to the parking lot where they had left their car. They were suddenly attacked by a group of four people walking in front of them, and dragged into the windbreak where they were gagged with rubber tape and bound with towels and handcuffs. They were forced into something like sleeping bags and carried several dozen meters away into a pine grove, but the four disappeared when a dog barked nearby, and the two each managed to escape by themselves and call the police. The police interviewed the victims and others concerned, made local inquiries, examined the items left behind at the scene, and compared the incident with the abductions of couples occurring immediately before, also near the coast, in Fukui (on July 7), Niigata (on July 31) and Kagoshima (on August 12), and all the evidence points to an attempted abduction. |
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| Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party, Japan 11-23, Nagata-cho 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8910, Japan Tel, +81-3-3581-6211 https://www.jimin.jp/ |
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