I’m surprised this story hasn’t gotten more play in the US. In 1978, North Korea decided that they needed Japanese tutors for their spies, so they kidnapped Japanese off beaches in Japan and took them to North Korea. North Korea denied the kidnappings until Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi visited North Korea, whereupon Kim Jong Il admitted that they had kidnapped 13 Japanese, but 8 of them died. Officially, Japan says 15 people were kidnapped, but some relatives claim the number is more like 50 to 60. Five of the survivors are visiting Japan, but not with their children who remained in North Korea. North Korea says the children aren’t hostages, oh my of course not, they just didn’t want to leave their beloved homeland.
Prime Minister Koizumi said on national television “Certainly North Korea is an unpardonable country. It abducts, takes away and kills.” Well, why should the North Korean government act any differently towards the Japanese people than its own? President Bush was right to call this regime evil – there’s no other description that fits. Jimmy Carter, who didn’t like President Bush’s characterization, said of Kim Jong Il’s daddy, Kim Il Sung, and the perpetrator of the abductions and murders, “I find him to be vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well informed about the technical issues, and in charge of the decisions about this country” and “I don’t see that they [the North Koreans] are an outlaw nation.” Like a certain news channel, we report, you decide which president is right.
