Chapter 2:
Some Foreigners Entered North Korea of Their Own Free Will But Also Found Themselves Trapped in Captivity The Unfortunate Case of Megumi Yao Started with A Fascination for Juche Seemingly innocent study groups in Japan and South Korea attracted some foreign citizens who were later held against their will in North Korea. Even today, curious students attend study sessions promoting the North Korean regime’s ideology of Juche and the history of North Korea. Over twenty thousand South Koreans are believed to participate in these seemingly innocuous groups, which RIWHQ FDPRXĂ DJH WKHLU DVVRFLDWLRQ ZLWK 1RUWK .RUHD E\ claiming to promote world peace and to equalize the disparity between have and have-not nations.1 These RUJDQL]DWLRQV DUH VHOGRP ZKDW WKH\ VHHP PDQ\ DUH managed by North Korean operatives in an organized effort to recruit pro-North Korean supporters. Megumi Yao, a former advocate of Juche ideology, wrote in her memoirs that her Ă€UVW H[SRVXUH WR 1RUWK .RUHD ZDV LQ 2VDND, Japan, when she attended a North Korean Ă€OP VFUHHQLQJ DQG D GLVFXVVLRQ IROORZLQJ WKH Ă€OP. Pro-Pyongyang agents contacted those who attended, visiting their homes and inviting them to future sessions. Yao grew increasingly involved and recruited other Japanese citizens to attend such events. Although she was never told the truth regarding the group’s motives and the regime’s backing, she accepted an offer from an operative to visit North Korea, ostensibly for three months.2 Yao became a captive in the country for over seven years. While there, she was forced to marry and give birth to a child, all the while taking part in acts of espionage under orders from the Korean Workers Party.3 A Group of Japanese Terrorists, called the Yodo-go Group, Found Themselves Stuck in North Korea The late 1960s and early 1970s were a turbulent time when Communist and socialist organizations were active among young adults and college students around the world. In 1969, a small, radical group of young Japanese split off from the Japanese Communist League to form the more violent Red Army Faction, called the “Japanese Red Armyâ€? outside Japan.4 The Red Army Faction was led by Shiomi Doh, Hee-yun. (President, &LWL]HQ¡V &RDOLWLRQ IRU +XPDQ 5LJKWV RI $EGXFWHHV DQG 1RUWK .RUHDQ 5HIXJHHV.) Personal Interview with Yamamoto. Seoul, South Korea. 29 October 2009.
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2
Yao, Megumi. 6KD]DL VKLPDVX (Bungeishunjyu, 2002) p. 58-59. NHK, <RGR JR WR 5DFKL (NHK Shuppan, 2004), 91. 4 The group gained international notoriety on May 30, 1972 when three of its members served as gunmen GXULQJ WKH /RG DLUSRUW PDVVDFUH 3XOOLQJ VXEPDFKLQH JXQV RXW RI WKHLU EDJJDJH WKH\ RSHQHG Ă&#x20AC;UH RQ LQQRFHQW civilians. Twenty-seven people were killed and seventy-two wounded. See David A. Korn, $VVDVVLQDWLRQ LQ .KDUWRXP (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1993), p. 48. 3
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