[USFK Forums] Japan police put 2 N.Koreans on int'l wanted list over abductions

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, March 4, 2006

Japan police put 2 N. Koreans on int'l wanted list over abductions

Friday March 3, 10:56 PM

(Kyodo) _ The Japanese police on Friday placed one former and one current North Korean agent on the international wanted list over the alleged abduction of four Japanese to North Korea, police officials said.

The National Police Agency had Interpol issue notices for Sin Guang Su and Choe Sung Chol, wanted for allegedly abducting two Japanese couples to North Korea on two separate occasions in July 1978, the officials said.

Last month, the Fukui prefectural police obtained an arrest warrant for Sin, 76, over the abductions of Yasushi and Fukie Chimura, while the Niigata prefectural police did the same for Choe over the kidnappings of Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike.

Japan then requested via its embassy in Beijing that North Korea hand over the two suspects. Sin and Choe, whom the police suspect to have played key roles in the abductions of Japanese, are believed to be in North Korea.

The latest addition brings the total number of suspects placed on the international wanted list over the abductions of Japanese to four in six cases. But Sin and Choe are the first ones wanted for cases involving repatriated abduction victims.

The Chimura and Hasuike couples returned to Japan along with another Japanese woman in October 2002, a month after North Korea admitted that 13 Japanese were brought to the country by its agents or went there voluntarily in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

According to investigations, Sin allegedly abducted the Chimuras at a park in Obama, Fukui Prefecture on July 7, 1978, and Choe is suspected of abducting the Hasuikes at a beach in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture on July 31 of that year.

The two couples were taken to North Korea, where they later married. The Japanese police had put Choe on the international wanted list under the surname "Pak" in 1985 on suspicion he was involved in spying activities by passing himself off as Kenzo Kosumi, a Japanese man who was born in 1933 and went missing around 1961.

Choe is believed to be aged between 70 and 75, and he was confirmed to have been in North Korea at least until May 2004. Sin is also suspected of involvement in the abduction of Megumi Yokota, who was taken from Niigata in 1977 at age 13, while the police allege that associates of Sin and Choe had contacts with another Japanese abductee Yaeko Taguchi.

North Korea claims Yokota, Taguchi and six other Japanese abductees died in the country. Taguchi went missing in June 1978 after leaving her two children at a daycare center. Fukie Chimura said after returning to Japan that she lived with Taguchi for around 14 months from September 1978 in North Korea.



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