You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Axis of Evil
5 Japanese Abductees Return Home — to visit...
2002-10-15
Five Japanese citizens returned home Tuesday for the first time since they were kidnapped by North Korean spies a quarter-century ago, weeping for joy as they rushed into the arms of long-lost loved ones. In a reunion marking a thaw in one of the last Cold War frontiers, the three women and two men stepped off a chartered jet from North Korea wearing crisp suits and dresses. First they clung to each other, then they erupted into tears and broad smiles as they hugged mothers and fathers on the tarmac of Tokyo's Haneda airport. They were greeted by a group of about 70 friends and family waving Japanese flags and offering large bouquets of pink and red roses. Arms linked, the reunited families then were swept into an airport lounge.
Even though the Evil that produced the kidnappings is breath-taking, it's a hopeful sign that the NKors are actually 'fessing up and apparently trying to make things right. I'm still not sure I know what to make of it — this incident actually could actually be edging toward the same category as the Berlin Wall coming down.
"We were all smiles and talking. I'm really happy that Fukie is just like the old Fukie," Yuko Hamamato said of his sister. She and her then-fiancee Yasushi Chimura were grabbed from behind, wrapped in bags and whisked away in North Korean boats as they strolled along a secluded Japanese beach in 1978, when both were just 23. Now married, they are among the five returnees who are the only known survivors of at least 13 people snatched by the North in the 1970s and early 80s — sometimes carried away bound in body bags — to train agents in Japanese language and culture.
That seems to have been a pretty stoopid and brutal way to get trainers. Surely there were enough nut cases that some could have been recruited with money, wimmin, or drugs? It would seem that the intention from the beginning was to get dispose of them when they were no longer useful...
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#1  "That seems to have been a pretty stoopid and brutal way to get trainers. Surely there were enough nut cases that some could have been recruited with money, wimmin, or drugs?"

If I recall my terrorism history correctly, didn't the Japanese Red Army (shot up Lod Airport in Israel killing two dozen) train in NKor? There are also a substantial number of Japanese of Korean heritage (treated like cr*p), who are all on board the NKor bandwagon. Between wacked out lefty terrorists and alienated JapKor's, there should be enough to stock up the spy school.
Posted by: Jabba the Tutt   2002-10-15 23:41:49  

00:00