[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....

[AmericanInTokyo]

Thankyou. Yes, I meant to add that up until only recently (last three weeks) N. Korea denied this. And then 'revealed' this fact when Koizumi was there for a one day meeting.

What is wierd of course is that all of these foreigners (from the N. Korean perspective) such as Japanese and US (who defected) were all put in the same general area for foreigners and watched, and forced to inter marry, and also carry out espionage training. All the while, the NK government a few years ago said it initiated a nationwide search, and no such foreigners were in it's midst.

What a bunch of liars.

They need to actually counter kidnap the brainwashed Japanese and deprogram them, to get all of the intelligence of the whole apparatus of NK kidnapping and espionage. Of course,their relatives back in North Korea as bargaining chips would be tortured and executed.