INTERVIEW/ Kaoru Hasuike: In his new book, abductee comes clean on life in North Korea

Asahi Shimbun

4 days ago

Kaoru Hasuike in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in May. He is one of the five Japanese citizens that North Korea released after abducting them in 1978. (Ryuichi Kitano)
Kaoru Hasuike is finally fully opening up about his long ordeal after being abducted by North Korean agents in 1978, including a plan to train Japanese abductees as secret operatives.
Hasuike returned home to Japan in 2002, around a quarter-century after he was snatched from his native city in Niigata Prefecture facing the Japan Sea.
Since his return, he has published several books on his experiences in North Korea, but had rarely touched on sensitive topics.
His most recent book, 'Nihonjin Rachi' (The abductions of Japanese citizens), published in May by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, differs from his other books, offering detailed descriptions of the North Korean organization running covert operations as well as the status of Japanese victims in the reclusive country.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in May, Hasuike, 67, said he felt compelled to speak up publicly to break the long impasse, seeing the little progress made toward resolving the issue over the past 23 years.
The whereabouts of at least 12 other abductees identified by the Japanese government have yet to be ascertained.
Hasuike is keenly aware that time is running out as parents of the abductees who had waged a tireless campaign to get their loved ones returned have passed away in succession in recent years.
He hopes that his book and sharing the complete story publicly will help mobilize public support for the long-overdue resolution of the prickly issue.
Excerpts from the interview follow.
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Question: You were abducted by North Korean agents on July 31, 1978, when you were on a date with your future wife, Yukiko Okudo, on the beach in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture. In your new book, you recount your life in North Korea in great detail.
Hasuike: The Workers' Party of Korea's External Investigations and Intelligence Department is the culprit behind the abductions scheme. Shortly after we were taken to North Korea, Kang Hae Ryong, a close aide to Kim Jong Il and the deputy head of the department, appeared before us.
Kang said, 'Our nation is a great nation. You can become an outstanding revolutionary by learning various things' from North Korea. Choe Sun Chol, who was placed on the international wanted list by Japanese police as the perpetrator of the abductions, said, 'Why don't you go back to Japan and do a big thing after attaining a high position in this country? You can learn in North Korea how to do that.'
Q: What do a 'great revolutionary' and a 'big thing' mean?
A: I presume that they intended to train the abductees to be secret agents. We were made to study the Korean language first. I was paired with Yasushi Chimura, who is now 70 and who was abducted around the same time as I was. We underwent ideological education in which we were demanded to pledge loyalty to North Korea and instilled in us a sense of guilt over Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
On special occasions like the birthdays of Kim Il Sung, who is revered as the founding father of North Korea, and of his son, Jong Il, we had to swear an oath that we 'will sacrifice our lives to fight for the great leader.'
The Japanese abductees, grouped into pairs, lived together at a facility in 'the invitation-only zone.' My wife was paired off with Rumiko Masumoto. Megumi Yokota was initially with Hitomi Soga and later with Yaeko Taguchi. I believe that North Korea abducted many young women partly because they had planned to use them as future spies.
Q: But the abductees were not turned into operatives, after all.
A: We were anxious when we were told we were going to attend what is King Jong Il Political Military University today, an institution for training operatives. But after months, no order came for us to enroll in the university. The plan was eventually aborted.
After returning to Japan, I learned about a string of incidents that women abducted from Macao or Lebanon attempted to flee in around 1978 and 1979 when they were sent overseas as North Korea's operatives. These cases, I suspect today, led the North Korean authorities to end the deployment of abductees for covert operations because of the risks involved.
Q: Wasn't there a danger that abductees would have been 'disposed' of if they could not serve as operatives?
A: It did not happen and the reason for that, I speculate, is that the abductions were carried out at the behest of Jong Il. The organization involved in it would have lost face if its project had been assessed as futile. So, North Korean officials came up with a new assignment for us to justify the abductions, which was to teach Japanese to train North Korean spies.
Q: You elaborated on your students in your latest book, including their names and personal characteristics.
A: I taught Japanese to 12 individuals from late 1979 to 1989. I had had no prior experience in teaching, but officials demanded an impossible task such as teaching them Japanese so that they could pass as Japanese citizens. I had no choice but to obey.
Most of the individuals I taught did not have a strong interest in learning Japanese or lacked language skills. Ten of the 12 were subsequently removed from the front lines of the operations before they became fully involved in clandestine activities. But I was relieved. I had been hoping that my students would play no part in evil operations.
Q: Ending the program to teach Japanese was prompted by the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air flight by two North Korean agents, who disguised themselves as Japanese citizens with forged Japanese passports.
A: One of the suspects, Kim Hyon Hui, told South Korea's investigators that a Japanese woman named Lee Un Hae, who was abducted by North Korea, tutored her in Japanese. I gathered that Kim was talking about Taguchi, whose Korean name was Ko Hye Oku.
Q: Later, you and other Japanese abductees were tasked with translating Japanese newspapers and broadcasts into Korean.
A: Yes. It was through a Japanese newspaper article that I learned about the establishment of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea by Japanese abductees' relatives. Prior to Deputy Prime Minister Shin Kanemaru's visit to Pyongyang in 1990, we were ordered to translate reference materials about Takeda Shingen, a feudal warlord from the 16th century, whom the politician held in great respect.
In the summer of 2000, the deputy head of the External Investigations and Intelligence Department instructed me to memorize a fabricated story about how I wound up in North Korea. It was, 'We went out to sea and got lost, but we were rescued by a North Korean vessel.'
But after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's 2002 visit to North Korea was finalized, a North Korean senior official said that I no longer needed to stick to that fictional account. In a sweeping reversal of Pyongyang's official stance, Jong Il admitted North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens for the first time and apologized during the Sept. 17 summit with Koizumi.
Q: What facilitated the change in policy?
A: The primary factor behind the shift must be a Japanese woman's testimony in a trial in Tokyo in March 2002. The woman, who was formerly married to a member of a group of perpetrators who defected to North Korea by hijacking a Japan Airlines plane in 1970, testified about her involvement in the abduction of Arimoto in Europe in 1983.
The North Korean authorities had vehemently denied the allegation of abducting Japanese as a 'hoax' over the years. That is why I was stunned when Pyongyang did not protest and made an announcement that indirectly admitted to the abductions. North Korea apparently concluded that it had no other option but to come clean so as not to derail diplomatic talks with Japan.
Q: Since you, your wife and three other abductees returned 23 years ago, you have privately shared with Japanese government officials and relatives of the victims what you had witnessed and heard about the abductees. But you have chosen not to share this with the public. In an Asahi interview three years ago, you also refused to discuss the issue, citing 'concerns about the safety of the victims and implications for bilateral talks.'
A: I knew that I must address the subject publicly someday. Arimoto's father, Akihiro, passed away in February. That makes Sakie, mother of Yokota, the only living parent of abductees identified by the Japanese government as victims. There is nothing I should hold back today as time is running out. I want to appeal to the Japanese public by sharing my and others victims' accounts with hopes of preventing North Korea from repeating the claim that 'the abductions issue has been resolved.'
Q: What do you want to emphasize the most?
A: Pyongyang's claim that Yokota, Taguchi and six other Japanese are dead is utterly unacceptable, given the absence of evidence and contradictions in its explanations.
Some argue that the two countries can enter into negotiations after first normalizing their relations. But even if Tokyo proceeds with normalizing bilateral ties by shelving the abductees issue, Pyongyang would stick to its stance that the issue has been resolved. I fear that such a development could end up effectively abandoning the remaining abductees.