What is the fate of Megumi Yokota
Nov 25, 2019 0:43:43 GMT
theravenking, politicidal, and 1 more like this
Post by hi224 on Nov 25, 2019 0:43:43 GMT
I have recently came across the North Korean kidnappings that happened in the 1970's, although i have known about them for some years. I came across doccumentaries of North Korea and then remembered the kidnappings.
From 1977-1983, North Korea kidnapped around 17 Japanese people although there is a large suspicion the number is actually estimated in the hundreds. North Korea only actually admitted to having kidnapped 13 people, then when asked for the peoples return said that 8 of those 13 had died. All different deaths, with a copied death certificates all being from the same hospital with the stamps in all the exact same location on the paper with each others.
It is presumed that there is many more people still trapped in North Korea who were kidnapped, one of those people being Megumi Yokota.
Yokota was abducted on 15 November 1977 at the age of thirteen while walking home from school in her seaside village in Niigata Prefecture. North Korean agents reportedly dragged her into a boat and took her straight to North Korea to a facility in which North Korean spies were taught about South Korean customs and practices. There she was taught the Korean language. Also at the facility were two South Korean high school students, aged 18 and 16, who had been abducted from South Korea in August 1977. In August 1978, three more 16-year-old South Korean students were abducted from South Korea and taken to the facility. The three included Kim Young-nam, who would reportedly later marry Yokota.
After learning Korean, Yokota was apparently forced to help train North Korean spies to pass as Japanese citizens. In January 1997, information about Megumi's abduction was disclosed to Yokota's parents by Tatsukichi Hyomoto, a secretary to Diet member Atsushi Hashimoto, by a phone call. In 2002, North Korea admitted that she and others had been abducted, but claimed that she had committed suicide and returned what it said were her cremated remains. Japan stated that a DNA test proved they could not have been her remains, and her family does not believe that she would have committed suicide. She is believed to have been abducted by Sin Gwang-su.
In the North in 1986, Yokota married a South Korean national, Kim Young-nam (Korean: 김영남, Hanja: 金英男), likely also abducted, and the couple had a daughter in 1987, Kim Hye-gyong (김혜경, whose real name was later revealed to be Kim Eun-gyong, 김은경). In June 2006, Kim Young-nam, who has since remarried, was allowed to have his family from the South visit him, and during the reunion he confirmed Yokota had committed suicide in 1994 after suffering from mental illness, and had several attempts at suicide before. He also claimed the remains returned in 2004 are genuine. His comments were however widely dismissed as repeating the official Pyongyang line, with Megumi's father claiming that Young-nam was not allowed to speak freely during his interview in Pyongyang, stating that "he was likely restricted in terms of what he can say" and that "it looked as if he were reading a script". In June 2012, Choi Seong-ryong, head of a support group for relatives of South Koreans abducted to the North, said that he had obtained North Korean government documents which stated that Yokota had died from "depression" on 14 December 2004.
It is widely believed, especially in Japan, that Yokota is still alive. In November 2011 a South Korean magazine, Weekly Chosun, stated that a 2005 directory of Pyongyang residents listed a woman, named Kim Eun-gong, with the same birth date as Yokota. The directory gave Kim's spouse's name as "Kim Yong Nam". Japanese government sources verified on 18 November 2011 that they had reviewed the directory but had yet to draw a conclusion on the identity of the woman listed. Sources later indicated that Kim Eun-gong was actually Yokota's 24-year-old daughter. In 2012, it was reported that North Korean authorities were keeping Kim under strict surveillance. In August 2012, Choi Seong-ryong stated that sources in North Korea had told him that Kim Eun-gong had been placed under the supervision of Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yeo-jong, and that the North Korean government may be planning on using Yokota's daughter as a "card" in future negotiations with Japan. Reportedly, in 2010 the North Korean government offered to allow Yokota's parents to visit Kim Eun-gyong in a country "other than Japan" but the Japanese government and Yokota's parents were wary about the offer, suspecting it as a ploy by the North Korean government to seek an advantage in ongoing diplomatic negotiations. In March 2014, the parents of Megumi Yokota met their granddaughter Kim Eun-gyong for the first time in Mongolia, along with her own baby daughter, whose father was not identified.
Kim later said durring an interview with the japanese priminister that her mother had indeed died, but Kim's grandparents refused to accept this since she was "raised in that country all this time and would have been told to say something like that". Many people to this day, even after Megumi's own daughter said she had died, believe she is still alive and is being hidden because she is an informat.
Megumi's entire life was taken away in a split second while she was walking home from badminton, she was forced to be isolated in this country she didnt know and had to work as a soilder against her will. Megumi had dreams, family and friends. It is people like her that we should cherish every second of our lives. I just hope that in future international talks, that North Korean's current president can have peace between countries and finally let the world get undeniable proof of what had happened to Megumi or where she is.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_abductions_of_Japanese_citizens
From 1977-1983, North Korea kidnapped around 17 Japanese people although there is a large suspicion the number is actually estimated in the hundreds. North Korea only actually admitted to having kidnapped 13 people, then when asked for the peoples return said that 8 of those 13 had died. All different deaths, with a copied death certificates all being from the same hospital with the stamps in all the exact same location on the paper with each others.
It is presumed that there is many more people still trapped in North Korea who were kidnapped, one of those people being Megumi Yokota.
Yokota was abducted on 15 November 1977 at the age of thirteen while walking home from school in her seaside village in Niigata Prefecture. North Korean agents reportedly dragged her into a boat and took her straight to North Korea to a facility in which North Korean spies were taught about South Korean customs and practices. There she was taught the Korean language. Also at the facility were two South Korean high school students, aged 18 and 16, who had been abducted from South Korea in August 1977. In August 1978, three more 16-year-old South Korean students were abducted from South Korea and taken to the facility. The three included Kim Young-nam, who would reportedly later marry Yokota.
After learning Korean, Yokota was apparently forced to help train North Korean spies to pass as Japanese citizens. In January 1997, information about Megumi's abduction was disclosed to Yokota's parents by Tatsukichi Hyomoto, a secretary to Diet member Atsushi Hashimoto, by a phone call. In 2002, North Korea admitted that she and others had been abducted, but claimed that she had committed suicide and returned what it said were her cremated remains. Japan stated that a DNA test proved they could not have been her remains, and her family does not believe that she would have committed suicide. She is believed to have been abducted by Sin Gwang-su.
In the North in 1986, Yokota married a South Korean national, Kim Young-nam (Korean: 김영남, Hanja: 金英男), likely also abducted, and the couple had a daughter in 1987, Kim Hye-gyong (김혜경, whose real name was later revealed to be Kim Eun-gyong, 김은경). In June 2006, Kim Young-nam, who has since remarried, was allowed to have his family from the South visit him, and during the reunion he confirmed Yokota had committed suicide in 1994 after suffering from mental illness, and had several attempts at suicide before. He also claimed the remains returned in 2004 are genuine. His comments were however widely dismissed as repeating the official Pyongyang line, with Megumi's father claiming that Young-nam was not allowed to speak freely during his interview in Pyongyang, stating that "he was likely restricted in terms of what he can say" and that "it looked as if he were reading a script". In June 2012, Choi Seong-ryong, head of a support group for relatives of South Koreans abducted to the North, said that he had obtained North Korean government documents which stated that Yokota had died from "depression" on 14 December 2004.
It is widely believed, especially in Japan, that Yokota is still alive. In November 2011 a South Korean magazine, Weekly Chosun, stated that a 2005 directory of Pyongyang residents listed a woman, named Kim Eun-gong, with the same birth date as Yokota. The directory gave Kim's spouse's name as "Kim Yong Nam". Japanese government sources verified on 18 November 2011 that they had reviewed the directory but had yet to draw a conclusion on the identity of the woman listed. Sources later indicated that Kim Eun-gong was actually Yokota's 24-year-old daughter. In 2012, it was reported that North Korean authorities were keeping Kim under strict surveillance. In August 2012, Choi Seong-ryong stated that sources in North Korea had told him that Kim Eun-gong had been placed under the supervision of Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yeo-jong, and that the North Korean government may be planning on using Yokota's daughter as a "card" in future negotiations with Japan. Reportedly, in 2010 the North Korean government offered to allow Yokota's parents to visit Kim Eun-gyong in a country "other than Japan" but the Japanese government and Yokota's parents were wary about the offer, suspecting it as a ploy by the North Korean government to seek an advantage in ongoing diplomatic negotiations. In March 2014, the parents of Megumi Yokota met their granddaughter Kim Eun-gyong for the first time in Mongolia, along with her own baby daughter, whose father was not identified.
Kim later said durring an interview with the japanese priminister that her mother had indeed died, but Kim's grandparents refused to accept this since she was "raised in that country all this time and would have been told to say something like that". Many people to this day, even after Megumi's own daughter said she had died, believe she is still alive and is being hidden because she is an informat.
Megumi's entire life was taken away in a split second while she was walking home from badminton, she was forced to be isolated in this country she didnt know and had to work as a soilder against her will. Megumi had dreams, family and friends. It is people like her that we should cherish every second of our lives. I just hope that in future international talks, that North Korean's current president can have peace between countries and finally let the world get undeniable proof of what had happened to Megumi or where she is.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_abductions_of_Japanese_citizens
