[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.

[summer]

The NYT article also said many of those Japanese citizens kidnapped were subsequently murdered. There was no reason to keep them alive after the North Korean government grilled them about personal life stories.