S. Korea Caught Megumi Yokota’s Kidnapper; Kim Dae Jung Returned Him to Pyongyang

Updated 9 Dec 06.

This just turns my stomach:

The Japanese media reported yesterday that Megumi Yokota, the poster child for Japanese abductees to North Korea who was 13 years old when she was kidnapped in 1997 [a factual error; she was kidnapped in 1977], was abducted by Shin Gwang-su (76). The report said that Hitomi Soga (46), another abductee who returned to Japan with her husband who deserted from the U.S. Armed Forces while stationed in Korea, revealed this to Yokota’s parents last November.

Reportedly, Soga lived in the same residential building in Pyongyang as Yokota in the late 1970s shortly after being abducted, and Shin was teaching Korean and ideology. Arrested in South Korea on spying charges, Shin was sentenced to death, but was sent to the North in 2000 according to the agreement from the inter-Korean summit talks.

Unbelieveable. The story goes on to note that Shin may also have known about South Koreans who were abducted, whether they were dead or alive, and their current status in the North. Didn’t DJ stop to consider that the family members of those abductees wanted to know?

Pyongyang handed over Yokota’s remains to Japan, saying that after being kidnapped from Niigata in 1977, she got married in North Korea and killed herself. But with Japan refuting this, saying that a DNA test proved the remains were false, the Pyongayng-Tokyo relationship soured.

This is an excellent film about Megumi Yokota now circulating on the film festival circuit called “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story. You can learn about”“and contribute to”“this moving film here. Chris and Patty, a married couple, are former producers with National Geographic who quit their jobs to make this film. They worked in close cooperation with the Yokota family.

Updates:

Antti, making use of his enviable language skills, comments:

As I read this, I wanted to know whether the ROK authorities were aware of Shin’s role in the kidnappings in Japan when he was returned to DPRK. They were, since Shin had confessed being involved in kidnappings already after his arrest in ROK in 1985 (Han’guk Ilbo) [in Korean ““ofk], and the Japanese authorities had protested (or “expressed regret” don’t know for sure) the return of Shin to DPRK in 2000. It was also widely reported in ROK media before and at the time of the return to DPRK.

This Japan Times article from August 2000 connects Shin to another kidnapping but not to Yokota’s:

South Korea handed over investigative and other court-proceeding materials to Japan last week on a former North Korean agent arrested after allegedly abducting a Japanese man in 1980, a South Korean government source said Monday.

Shin Kwang Soo, 72, is one of 63 former North Korean agents set to be repatriated to the North on Saturday under an agreement made between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at their June summit.

Seoul’s decision to release the documents to Japan effectively states that Tokyo’s request to conduct face-to-face questioning of Shin is not possible, the source said.

Shin has refused to be questioned by Japanese authorities on the alleged abduction.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Monday that the Japanese government finds it “extremely regrettable” that the planned repatriation by South Korea of the former North Korean agent would make it impossible for Japanese authorities to question him.

If Shin is repatriated, “Japanese authorities will become unable to proceed with part of their investigations,” Nakagawa told a news conference in Tokyo. “We find this extremely regrettable.

. . . .

Shin was arrested in South Korea in 1985 while operating as a North Korean spy after he entered South Korea under the identity of the abducted Japanese man, the documents show.

Thanks to Antti for adding good facts to the discussion. Some of the arrested spies, possibly to include Shin, are now filing regime-orchestrated claims to be compensated for “torture” by South Korean authorities. I don’t have much to add to what The Marmot has already said about that, other than the fact that I don’t believe in applying the same interrogation rules to ordinary criminal suspects and international terrorists. There have to be some benefits wearing a uniform, carrying arms openly, and obeying the laws of international armed conflict”“such as those prohibiting the targeting of innocent civilians, which Megumi Yokota either is or was.