After the formation of two mutually opposing states on the Korean Peninsula in 1948, Tokyo, following in the wake of Washington's policy, headed for recognition of South Korea. At the end of a long and difficult negotiation process, the "Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea"was concluded in 1965. As for the interstate relations between Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), they have not yet been normalized.

In addition to North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, the problem of abductions of Japanese citizens by the DPRK's special services also hinders the establishment of diplomatic relations between this country and Japan.

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

In the late 1970s, mysterious disappearances of citizens occurred in various parts of Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan. In July and August 1978, three pairs of young men went missing in Fukui, Niigata and Kagoshima Prefectures. They didn't return home from their beach dates. On January 7, 1980, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper published a report that suspected North Korea's involvement in the missing Japanese. Eight years later, on March 26, 1988, Chairman of the Public Security Committee Kajiyama Jeroku and Japanese Foreign Minister Uno Sosuke at a meeting of the finance Committee of the upper house of the Japanese Parliament for the first time officially announced the high probability of abductions of citizens by the DPRK special services. A serious reason for these statements was the interception of encrypted radio transmissions of North Korean special purpose vessels. The secret radio center of the Japanese police recorded active radio exchanges precisely at the time of the disappearance of people1.

In May 1991, during the third round of talks to normalize bilateral relations, the Japanese side raised the issue of the"Lee Un-hye incident". A North Korean intelligence officer named Kim Hyun-hoo, who was convicted in South Korea for blowing up a South Korean passenger plane in Myanmar's airspace in November 1987, told South Korean authorities that during her training as an intelligence officer in the DPRK, a Japanese woman named Lee Un-hye taught her Japanese. The Japanese police considered it highly likely that the Japanese language teacher mentioned by the North Korean intelligence officer was in reality Taguchi Yaeko, who was listed as missing. The North Korean side reacted sharply to the Japanese raising the issue of Lee Un-hye, saying that it was "an insult to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and a step aimed at undermining bilateral negotiations." ²

Later, Japanese diplomats, parliamentarians and representatives of the Japanese Red Cross regularly raised the issue of abductions during meetings with their North Korean counterparts, but Pyongyang's representatives categorically denied North Korea's involvement in such actions.³

According to a statement issued by a representative of the DPRK Red Cross in June 1998, the results of the investigation showed that none of the ten Japanese citizens considered stolen in Tokyo in the seven alleged abductions live in the DPRK. In August of the same year, after the launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea, negotiations between representatives of the Japanese Red Cross and the DPRK were suspended ⁴.

On March 11, 2002, the General Police Department of Japan officially announced that a Japanese citizen, Arimoto Keiko, had been abducted by North Korean intelligence services. In response, the DPRK Red Cross again rejected the accusations of abducting Japanese citizens, but at the same time announced its decision to continue investigating cases of "missing people" and notified the DPRK Red Cross representatives of its readiness to hold talks with Japanese partners.⁵

ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH COOPERATION

On September 17, 2002, Japanese Prime Minister Juniro Koizumi paid an official visit to Pyongyang. This was a breakthrough event in Japan's relations with North Korea.

During the visit, the framework for resolving the security problems of Japan and the DPRK was defined, and both sides declared their desire to cooperate in order to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia. In the "Pyongyang Declaration" signed by the two leaders, the DPRK expressed its intention to extend the moratorium on launching ballistic missiles for the period after 2003, and the Japanese side showed readiness to provide economic assistance to North Korea.

At the same time, the Chairman of the DPRK Defense Committee, Kim Jong Il, acknowledged the facts of abductions of Japanese citizens by the DPRK special services and apologized. The Pyongyang Declaration states the following:: "With regard to the outstanding issues affecting the life and security of the Japanese people, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has confirmed that it will take appropriate measures to ensure that the deplorable problems that have been caused by the lack of normal Japanese-Korean relations do not arise in the future,"the statement said.⁶. The North Korean authorities have informed Japanese officials that of the 13 Japanese smuggled into the DPRK, five are alive and eight have died.

SHADOW OF A TRAGIC PAST

The problem of kidnappings is a legacy of the Cold War. In addition, it has an unfavorable historical background: This includes Japan's colonial rule in Korea in 1910-1945, and the Korean War of 1950-1953, when Japan played the role of a US rear base.

An authoritative Japanese historian, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, Wada Haruki, noted that the founder and first leader of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, was the leader of the anti-Japanese guerrilla movement, and the spirit of hatred for the Japanese invaders lay at the very foundation of the creation of the North Korean state. During the Korean War in 1950-1953, various Japanese structures - from the State Corporation of Railways and the Coast Guard Service to the Japanese Red Cross - collaborated with the US armed forces and their allies who fought against the DPRK. During the war, American B-29 bombers based at Yokota near Tokyo and Kadena in Okinawa carried out massive bombing attacks on cities, dams and other facilities in the DPRK. For these reasons, North Korea is accustomed to seeing Japan as a hostile state.⁷ Therefore, it was worth a lot for the DPRK leadership to admit the facts of abductions of Japanese citizens and apologize in this regard. These unprecedented steps by Kim Jong Il indicated a serious intention to move away from the Cold War-era practice of North Korea's relations with the outside world and a desire to establish normal interstate relations with Japan.

"PYONGYANG DECLARATION"

Visit of the Prime Minister of Japan Dz.Koizumi's visit to the DPRK and the signing of the "Pyongyang Declaration" in September 2002 were the fruits of lengthy negotiations between Japanese and Korean diplomats. It seemed that the restoration of bilateral interstate relations was only a few steps away.

However, events soon took an unfavorable turn. Two days after the Japan-North Korea summit, on September 19, 2002, Sukuukai (founded on October 4, 1997 by the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Abducted by North Korea) issued a statement questioning the information provided by the North Korean side about the deaths of eight of the total number of abducted compatriots. It reprimanded the Japanese Government for passing on unconfirmed information about the abductees ' deaths to their relatives.

Sukukai suggested that these stolen people were still alive and still being forcibly held by the North Korean authorities.⁸

The above-mentioned statement of the "National Rescue Association" caused a new wave of distrust and hostility towards North Korea among the Japanese.

On October 15, 2002, five Japanese citizens from among those abducted by the North Korean special services, namely the married couples Timura and Hasuike, as well as Soga Hitomi, arrived on a special flight from the DPRK to Japan. However, their reunion with relatives who remained in the DPRK was delayed for a long time. It was agreed between the Japanese and North Korean sides that the above-mentioned Japanese citizens will return to the DPRK after visiting Japan in order to work with the North Korean authorities to finally decide on the place of permanent residence of themselves and their relatives. However, the Japanese relatives of the former captives did not want to let their loved ones go to North Korea.

Thus, the Japanese side violated the agreements reached earlier. Following this, the Japanese government in an ultimatum tone demanded the transfer of the children of five previously abducted compatriots who remained in the DPRK. Moreover, the desire of some former prisoners to return to Pyongyang was ignored. Officials described this desire as "the result of brainwashing that people have been subjected to in North Korea for decades."⁹. Deputy General Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan Abe Shinzo, to whom the Prime Minister Dz.Koizumi entrusted the management of cases on the issue of abductees, made disrespectful statements towards the North Korean authorities. In particular, he said that while "Japan has plenty of food and oil, North Korea will not be able to survive the winter without them and will soon burst at the seams." ¹⁰

Along with Sukukai, Kajokukai (National Association of Families of Japanese Abducted by North Korea, established on March 25, 1997) has also launched active anti-Korean propaganda.Both organizations advocate for the Japanese government to exert maximum pressure on the leadership of the DPRK and for implementing practical measures to rescue the abductees. Sato Katsumi, head of the North Korea Research Group and founder of Sukukai, wrote that " Japan should conduct operations that would undermine Kim Jong Il's regime from within."¹¹. Japanese media repeatedly repeated the arguments of extremists, exaggerated the topic of kidnappings.

The violation by the Japanese authorities of the agreement on the return of five Japanese citizens-former prisoners of North Korea-to the DPRK, as well as the campaign of attacks on the DPRK that unfolded in the Japanese media, caused sharp opposition from North Korea. Pyongyang did not agree to the speedy relocation of relatives of the abductees to Japan. Negotiations on the normalization of relations between Japan and the DPRK have once again stopped for a long time.

In the period from September 28 to October 1, 2002 Pyongyang was visited by a group of investigators formed by the Japanese government to study the circumstances of abductions and clarify the fate of compatriots who were injured as a result of special operations of North Korean intelligence. The work of Japanese investigators and their Korean partners took place in an atmosphere of mutual distrust caused by the anti-Korean campaign in Japan. Trying not to harm the activities of their special services, the representatives of Pyongyang clearly kept silent and only slightly opened the veil of secrecy over the past.

FATE OF THE ABDUCTEES

According to the explanations of the North Korean side, set out in the report of the investigation team of the Japanese government, on November 15, 1977, in the city of Niigata, a 13-year-old girl Yokota Megumi was abducted by a North Korean intelligence officer on her way home from school and taken to the DPRK. As representatives of Pyongyang explained, their operative in this case acted arbitrarily and went to kidnap the schoolgirl, because at that moment there was a danger of his exposure. Further, according to the North Korean side, after the Yokota Megumi incident, the leadership of one of the special services of the DPRK came up with the idea of exporting adult Japanese citizens to the DPRK to use them as Japanese language teachers in intelligence schools and to disguise the identity of North Korean agents with the help of authentic documents of Japanese citizens. This special service allegedly carried out a series of unauthorized operations: from June 1978 to June 1980, 9 adult men and women were taken from Japan to the DPRK. In the early 1980s, agents of another special service of the DPRK also took unauthorized actions to bring Japanese people to the DPRK: between June 1980 and July 1983, they imported three Japanese citizens from Western Europe. In total, 13 Japanese men and women were smuggled into the DPRK, seven of them were abducted by North Korean agents, one woman was stolen by a Japanese businessman on behalf of a North Korean representative, and five people arrived in the DPRK with their own consent. According to Pyongyang, in 1998, two North Korean intelligence officers who were directly responsible for operations to kidnap Japanese citizens were convicted in the DPRK under six articles of the criminal code: Jang Bong Lim was sentenced to death, and Kim Song Chol was sentenced to 15 years in prison.¹²

The North Korean side declared dead all persons brought to the DPRK by the special services, allegedly having previously obtained their consent. These are Matsuki Kaoru, a student at the Kyoto Institute of Foreign Languages, Ishioka Toru, a student at Nihon University, who was imported to the DPRK in 1980 from Spain, and Arimoto Keiko, a student at the Kobe Institute of Foreign Languages, who arrived in Pyongyang in 1982 from the United Kingdom. All three of them accepted an offer to become Japanese language teachers at a North Korean intelligence school. In December 1985. Ishioka and Arimoto got married and had a baby the following year. According to the North Korean side, in November 1988, the couple and their child died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping in an apartment in a special "guest house". Matsuki Kaoru also died-he was allegedly the victim of an accident. All three were buried in a cemetery in Hichen, but in August 1995, their remains were washed away by water during a severe flood.¹³

Two more people allegedly ended up in North Korea by their own will and died there. Taguchi Yaeko, a 23-year-old restaurant worker from Tokyo, expressed a wish to a North Korean agent in June 1978 to make a three-day trip to the DPRK, and he sent her to North Korea. From June 1978 to October 1984, Taguchi stayed in one of the "guest houses", where she studied Korean and got acquainted with the realities of life in the DPRK. Hara Tadaaki, 43, a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Osaka, wanted to go abroad to earn money and treat his bad teeth. An employee of the North Korean secret service who contacted him offered one million yen and the opportunity to travel to the DPRK in exchange for an authentic extract from the family record book (civil status records) of the Hara family. The deal took place, and in June 1980, Hara was transferred to North Korea and lived in a "guest house"until October 1984. Hara and Taguchi were married in October 1984, but Hara soon died of cirrhosis of the liver. A few days after her husband's death, Taguchi died in a car accident. The couple were buried, but in July 1995. after heavy rains, a dam burst near the cemetery where the remains of Hara and Taguchi were buried, and their graves were washed away by a flood of water.

According to the North Korean side, three other Japanese citizens from among those abducted and forcibly taken away from the country on special operations vessels also died in the DPRK. Stolen from Kagoshima Prefecture in 1978, Ichikawa Shuichi, a 24-year-old employee of the Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, and his girlfriend, Masumoto Rumiko, 25, were married in April 1979 and then lived in a "guest house". In September 1979, Ichikawa drowned on a beach near the city of Wonsan, and two years later his wife died as a result of heart disease. Their remains were allegedly lost under the same circumstances as those of other Japanese citizens.

According to information provided by the North Korean side, the life of Yokot Megumi, whose abduction in 1977 ended tragically in the DPRK.-

lo began a series of special operations by North Korean intelligence against Japanese citizens. Like other compatriots, she lived in the "guest house" until July 1986. In August 1986, Yokota married a North Korean citizen and gave birth to a daughter a year later, and in March 1993, she died as a result of a mental illness.

Two Japanese men and three Japanese women managed to survive in captivity. Timur Yasushi, a 23-year-old carpenter's apprentice, was abducted in July 1978 in the town of Obama, Fukui Prefecture. He soon married Hamamoto Fukie , a friend who was abducted with him in the vicinity of the city of Obama. Hasuike Kaoru, a former student at Chuo University, and his girlfriend Okudo Yukiko, a Kanebo employee, are also alive. Both were stolen in July 1978 near the town of Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture and transported to the DPRK. In May 1980. they got married and had a son.

Soga Hitomi, a nurse from Sado County, Niigata Prefecture, was abducted in August 1978 by a Japanese businessman on behalf of North Korean intelligence and sent to the DPRK. In August 1980. She married Charles Robert Jenkins , a U.S. Army sergeant who defected from a military unit stationed in South Korea and fled to the north. The couple have two children.

The details of the lives of the five surviving Japanese citizens among the abductees in the DPRK are not reported: it is only known that Timura Yasushi and Hasuike Kaoru worked as translators at the Institute of Ethnography of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences in ^September 200214.

As for Yutaka Kume and Soga Miyoshi, who, according to the information available to the Japanese side, were also abducted, the North Korean representatives stated that these Japanese citizens had never been to the territory of the DPRK.¹⁵

ATTEMPTS TO PUT PRESSURE ON PYONGYANG

From the very beginning, the North Korean side's explanations about the circumstances of the Japanese entry into the DPRK and their future fate were received with disbelief in Tokyo. In particular, Pyongyang's explanations about the "unauthorized" nature of the actions of employees of the North Korean special services seemed completely implausible. In an environment of strict regulation of all aspects of life in the DPRK, intelligence officers could not conduct operations without approval from above.

The Japanese side could not but raise doubts about Pyongyang's assurances that even the remains of dead Japanese people who were invited or forcibly brought to this country were not preserved in the DPRK.

During the six-party talks on resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula in 2003 and 2004, as well as during the parallel Japan-North Korea consultations, the Japanese side exerted pressure on Pyongyang, demanding more complete and truthful information about the abductions. Feelings of hostility against North Korea were growing in Japan. Sukuukai and Kajokukai insisted on strong measures by the Japanese government to reunite the relatives of the abducted people as soon as possible, including the introduction of economic sanctions against the DPRK. Taking into account the public mood, the Japanese Parliament in 2004 adopted Amendments to the Currency Regulation Act and the Law on Special Measures to Prohibit Certain Sea Vessels from Entering Japanese Ports. These amendments included a ban on money transfers from Japan to the DPRK and a suspension of delivery of goods from Japan to North Korea, primarily on the Mangyongbong 92 motor ship, which operated between Niigata and Korean ports.¹⁶

For Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, normalization of Japan's relations with the DPRK was one of the priority goals that he wanted to achieve before the end of his term as Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in September 2006. He needed serious success in solving the problem of abductions of Japanese citizens. May 22, 2004 Koizumi made a second visit to Pyongyang, where he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. During the talks, the North Korean leader promised to "conduct a new thorough investigation from scratch" against ten Japanese citizens. This meant a change in the previous position that "the problem of abductions has been completely resolved" ^.17 As a sign of goodwill, the Japanese Prime Minister announced his intention to provide food aid (250 thousand tons of corn or rice) and humanitarian aid (medicine worth $10 million) to the DPRK.

As a direct result of the Dz session.Koizumi's trip to Pyongyang was marked by the final return to Japan of the children of Timur and Hasuike, that is, five of the eight relatives of Japanese citizens who remained in the DPRK at that time, repatriated in ^October 2002.18

The majority of the Japanese population reacted positively to this step of the Prime Minister. According to the results of a survey conducted by the Yomiuri newspaper, 72% of respondents approved of the visit, while 24% reacted negatively to it.¹⁹ However, the Kajokukai organization assessed the results of the visit as "the worst", since the North Korean side did not provide comprehensive information about the abducted compatriots. Stirring up hostility towards North Korea, the Yomiuri newspaper wrote:: "When dealing with the DPRK, we must not forget that it is a military-dictatorial state that has committed criminal acts of kidnapping. To improve relations with Pyongyang, along with dialogue, it is necessary to resort to pressure. " ²⁰

At Tokyo's insistence, during the third round of Japan-North Korea working - level consultations held in Pyongyang on November 9-14, 2004, Japanese representatives held lengthy meetings with members of the North Korean "commission of inquiry" set up by Kim Jong Il and with 16 witnesses. They included doctors and nurses who examined the patient's condition.-

who visited and treated the abducted Japanese citizens, their former instructors, employees of "guest houses", etc.²¹, the North Korean side handed over "physical evidence" of the death of the Japanese to representatives of Tokyo. These were "the remains of Yokota Megumi and Matsuki Kaoru", "the medical history of Yokota Megumi", copies of criminal cases of North Korean intelligence officers convicted in connection with abductions of Japanese citizens, copies of car accident reports, during which the Japanese allegedly died.

DNA testing of the "remains" was carried out at Teike University and the National Police Research Institute. It showed that the bone fragments presented did not belong to Yokota Megumi and Matsuki Kaoru, but to other people.²² On the other hand, independent experts noted that the examination of these fragments in Japanese institutions was conducted amateurishly and its results contained contradictions. ²³ The "Medical history", allegedly belonging to Yokota Megumi, contained records of several patients of different ages. In the copies of criminal cases of intelligence officers, large parts of the text were blackened, and the documents did not make it possible to establish to what extent the convicts were involved in the abductions. Parts of the car accident records were found to be smeared, so these documents could not be considered as evidence of the deaths of Taguchi Yaeko and Matsuki Kaoru in road accidents.

In general, as noted in the Japanese Government's report published on December 24, 2004, the North Korean side was unable to produce strong evidence of the deaths of the eight abducted Japanese citizens, as well as evidence in relation to Kume Yutaka and Soga Miyoshi that they were not forcibly brought to the DPRK.²⁴

This document provoked a sharp protest from Pyongyang. On January 24, 2005, the Government of the DPRK sent a memorandum to the Government of Japan demanding that the North Korean side "return the remains in their original condition, conduct a thorough inspection, establish the truth about the falsification of the analysis results, and strictly punish those responsible for the fabrication"²⁵.

After a fierce dispute over the authenticity of the remains of Yokota Megumi, Japanese-North Korean contacts have fallen into another long pause. The reason for the resumption of dialogue between Tokyo and Pyongyang was the fourth round of six-party talks on the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, held in Beijing from July 26 to August 7 and from September 13 to September 20, 2005.

At the Japan-North Korea consultations held in Beijing in parallel with the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks, it was decided to resume the dialogue between the two Governments on abductions. ²⁶ However, it became clear that negotiations on the main issues of bilateral relations would continue to be difficult because the North Korean side considers the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens finally resolved when signed in September 2002 D. "Pyongyang Declaration"²⁷.

(The ending follows)

¹ Aoki Osazhu. Kazokukai to Sukuukai no juni nan (12 years of "National Association of Families of Japanese Abducted by North Korea" and " National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Abducted by North Korea.") Sekai. 2010, No. 1, p. 138.

² The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Outline and Background of Abduction Cases of Japanese Nationals by North Korea. April 2002 -http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/n_corea/abduct.html

³ Ibidem.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Gaiko fuoramu. December 2002, N 173. P. 15.

⁷ The Strange Record of 15 years of Japan-North Korea negotiations. By Gavan McCormac and Wada Haruki // Japan Focus. September 2, 2005 - http://japanfocus.org/-Wada-Haruki/1894

⁸ Haruki Wada. Japan-North Korea Relations - a Dangerous Stalemate // The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 25. 2.09 - http://japanfocus. org/-Wada-Haruki/3176

⁹ Berkofsky Axel. Japan's North Korea Policy: Trends, controversies, and impact on Japan's overall defense and security policy // AIES-STUDIEN. N 2. May 2011. P. 5.

¹⁰ Haruki Wada. Op. cit.

¹¹ The Strange Record of 15 years of Japan-North Korea negotiations...

¹² http://www.asahi.com./special/abductees/report.html

¹⁴ Ibidem.

¹⁵ At present, the official list of victims of kidnappings compiled by the Japanese side includes 17 people. In April 2005, a 28-year-old restaurant worker, Tanaka Minoru, from Hyogo Prefecture, who disappeared after traveling to Europe, and a 29-year-old woman, Matsumoto Kyoko, who disappeared in Tottori Prefecture, were added to the list. The DPRK authorities did not respond to requests from Tokyo about the fate of these people - www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/n_korea/abduction/pdfs/abductions_ru.pdf

¹⁶ Harukanaru rinjin-nitte no meiro (Distant neighbor-Japanese-North Korean maze). Kedo tsushinsha, Tokyo, 2004, p. 218.

¹⁷ These ten people include eight Japanese citizens who, according to the North Korean side, were forcibly or with their consent brought to the DPRK, but, according to Pyongyang, died. This number also includes Kume Yutaka and Soga Miyoshi (the mother of Soga Hitomi, who was captured by North Korean intelligence in 1978 and returned to Japan in October 2002). According to information available to the Japanese side, these two were also abducted and taken to the DPRK. In particular, according to Soga Hitomi, her mother was abducted at the same time as her, but Pyongyang claims that Soga Miyoshi never visited the territory of the DPRK.

¹⁸ For the other three, Soga Hitomi met her two children and husband Charles Jenkins in Indonesia in July 2004. Later, Jenkins was tried in a U.S. military court at the Dzama military base in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and was expelled from the U.S. Army for desertion and served a 30-day prison sentence. In December 2004, the entire family settled in the city of Sado (Niigata Prefecture).

¹⁹ Yomiuri, 24.05.04.

²⁰ Ibidem.

²¹ http://www.go.jp/region/asia/-paci/n_korea/abduction/ invest0412.pdf

²² Ibidem.

²³ Berkofsky Axel. Op. cit., p. 6.

²⁴ http://www.go.jp/region/asia/-paci/n_korea/abduction/invest 0412.pdf

²⁵ http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/n_korea/abduction/ comment0502.pdf

²⁶ http://www.asahi.com/special/nuclear/TKY200509200327.html

²⁷ http://www.asahi.com/special/nuclear/TKY200509190129.html

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