[AmericanInTokyo]

Japanese who were kidnapped some as long as 25 years ago, are now in Japan. They were 'let go' to Japan recently (their families in North Korea basically 'held hostage'), to be briefly reunited with their families they have not seen in years. North Korea always denied knowing anything about this.

As expected, the abductees to a person had been brainwashed and you can tell from their almost unanimous action in Japan where they should have been free to speak their mind. One of the released (temporarily--they have to go back to Pyongyang, North Korea), a female, is married to a US military defector to North Korea. This is something right out of twilight zone!

[Chi-townChief]

"This is something right out of twilight zone!"

Try "The Manchurian Candidate."

[Orual]

[The Old Hoosier]

Brainwashed, or fearful for the lives of their new families in N. Korea.

[moyden]

North Korea is every liberal's wet dream.

[summer]

North Korea has always denied knowing anything about this.

Actually, according to the NYT, the North Korean government recently admitted what they were doing: abducting the most ordinary of Japanese citizens, including young students studying abroad in Europe, and then having North Korean spies assume the kidnapped Japanese citizens' identities. I read this article, below, and had chills up my spine. North Korea is really a frightening place, and labeling them part of an "axis of evil" was right on the money:

The NYT -- FOREIGN DESK | September 28, 2002, Saturday

Plot Confirmed, Japan Feels No Less Pain

By HOWARD W. FRENCH (NYT) 1683 words

Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 1, Column 2 LEAD PARAGRAPH - It took three months for Rumiko Masumoto to muster the courage to tell her family about her new boyfriend. Then, over dinner one August night in 1978, her brother recalls now, she shared her secret.

''I have met a man who I have become close with,'' said Ms. Masumoto, 23. ''Tomorrow we are going to the beach for a date.'' But her wonderful secret presaged disaster....

[summer]

BTW, I believe the above NYT article stated the first ones in Japan to raise questions about this plot, many years ago, and to point in the right direction, was a highly "conservative" Japanese newspaper. I thought that was interesting - the NYT acknowledging conservatives are the ones who, at least in this case, had the brains to figure out what was actually going on.