Abductions Update: Volunteer Translators Wanted; a Rumor that Kim Jong Il Will ‘Investigate’ the Issue

A group of family members of Japanese abductees is looking for native English speakers to edit their  translations of a book on Japanese who were abducted by the North Koreans.  If you’re interested in helping, all they ask is that you translate one chapter.  From the summary, some of the stories look pretty compelling:

Chapter 1: The Yokota family — Their 13-year-old daughter, Megumi, disappeared on her way home from school.  Her family made every possible effort to find her, but in vain.  27 years later, they learned that their daughter had been abducted by North Korea.  The family’s new struggle has begun, and Megumi has become the symbol of abduction. 

Chapter 2: The Masumoto and Ichikawa families — Rumiko Masumoto and Shuichi Ichikawa   were kidnapped during a seashore date on a hot summer day.  When the Japanese government finally made contact with North Korea almost a quarter century later, the families were told the cruel fact that the couple had already deceased in North Korea.  But who would believe it? 

Chapter 3: The Chimura and Hamamoto families — Yasushi Chimura and Fukie Hamamoto were also kidnapped during a date.  They returned home after 24 years as a result of a Japanese and North Korean meeting in October, 2002.  However, Yasushi’s mother, who had been long ill, passed away shortly before her son’s return.  Yasushi wailed at her picture, “Mother, I’m home!”   The couple was also heartbroken, since they left their three children in North Korea. 

Chapter 4: The Arimoto and Matsuki families — Keiko Arimoto was unacquainted with Kaoru Matsuki.  Keiko vanished from Denmark in 1983, and Kaoru from Spain in 1980.  One day in 1988, a letter from a third person, revealing their life together in North Korea, arrived out of the blue.  They must have taken a huge risk of being caught and placed the letter in a traveler’s hand.  The letter was folded many times and postmarked in Poland. 

Some of the information in the book, specifically that about Hitomi Soga, a/k/a Mrs. Charles Jenkins, looks at bit dated, so  a volunteer with some subject matter knowledge would be best. In related news, a “source with ties to North Korea” says that Kim Jong Il is now promising to conduct a thorough “investigation” into abductees, representing a change from the blanket denials we’ve seen before.  Anything for a few yen, I guess.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Tokyo will refuse economic aid to Pyongyang unless it sees progress in a dispute over citizens kidnapped decades ago to help train North Korean spies in language and culture.  [Reuters]

If he’s ready to release a few more, an announcement like this is an expected prerequisite, though by no means a guarantee.   I should emphasize that this report screams, “DUBIOUS!”

The source said Kim told those involved in the kidnappings “not to sabotage investigations or cover (things) up.”

“Evidence must be produced to prove deaths. DNA tests must be conducted,” the source said. “Their families must be allowed to come out and say what the situation is. 

“If they are still alive and do not want to return to Japan, they should come out and say so,” the source said. “But there is truly no record of some of them entering North Korea.” 

Japan strongly opposes removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until North Korea resolves this issue.  If Japan’s strategy procures the release of more of these hostages, that should also provoke some thought in South Korea.  Stay tuned.

Some Anju links:

*   The FTA truly looks dead if the Democrats have made the decision to oppose it, as I had speculated here.  You can  say that the various members of Congress are only thinking of the financial interests of their constituents, but  when I last checked, for those whose districts don’t include Incheon, that’s  a big part of their job. 

Each nation’s negotiators had to consider not only (a)  their own country’s  domestic interests, but also (b)  whether the  draft agreement  could withstand the  domestic politics of the other nation’s ratification process.  It turns out that our negotiations did surprisingly well at (b) and surprisingly badly at (a), while South Korea appears to have overlooked (b) entirely  in its drive to drive the hardest bargain it could.  President Roh gave  them no cover on (a) by actually selling the merits of a fair deal to his people, meaning that he had plenty of leverage over American negotiators to make a deal they could never  sell back at home.  An FTA would have done far more for South Korea than the United States, and thus, South Korea became  the victim of its blind drive  toward a hard bargain.

*   The IAEA is saying it has agreed with the North Koreans on how to shut down Yongbyon, and that all that’s left to do is for the six  parties to meet and pick a date.  Funny, I thought the date was April 13th.

*   Some interesting observations about Kim Jong Il’s personality from Hwang Jang Yop, via the Daily NK.   

*   China is having trouble staying  ahead of the Internet and other alternative publications in its  game of whack-a-mole censorship.  [RFA]  

*   Because starving the people isn’t enough, North Korea is collecting property taxes.