Posted on 07/20/2005 6:41:35 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Wednesday July 13, 11:28 PM
LEAD: N. Korean agent on wanted list taught Korean to Japanese abductees
(Kyodo) _ (EDS: CLARIFYING 6TH GRAF, ADDING INFO IN 7TH GRAF)
A former North Korean agent, who is on an international wanted list, taught the Korean language and North Korean philosophy to two Japanese citizens including Megumi Yokota who were abducted to the North in the late 1970s, sources familiar with the issue said Wednesday.
Sin Guang Su, the 76-year-old North Korean agent, was in charge of providing education to Yokota and Hitomi Soga at a guesthouse in Pyongyang where the two Japanese were living, the sources said.
Sin played the role for about two years from around August 1978 when Soga was abducted to North Korea, they said.
Yokota was taken to the North from the city of Niigata in Niigata Prefecture in November 1977 at age 13.
Soga, 46, who now lives in Sado in Niigata Prefecture, indicated Sin's role after she saw him on TV news reports in Japan. Soga was repatriated to Japan in October 2002 after a landmark visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Pyongyang in September that year for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Sin is suspected of having abducted Tadaaki Hara in 1980, and Japanese authorities have issued an arrest warrant for him on suspicion of violating Japan's passport law, as he obtained a passport and a driver's license under Hara's name.
Japan is also asking North Korea to extradite Sin, but the North has rejected the request.
Sin was arrested by South Korean authorities in 1985 for espionage and sentenced to death, but was later sent back to North Korea after being given an amnesty.
North Korea's Kim admitted in September 2002 at his talks with Koizumi that the country's agents had abducted 13 Japanese nationals to the North in the 1970s and 1980s.
Five of the 13, including Soga, were repatriated to Japan in October that year, but North Korea said the eight others including Yokota are dead.
Many Iranian revolutionary guards are among the alumni of N. Korea's SpecOp training program.
Ping!
When did the S Koreans send him back? Why?
D*mn Sunshine policy. That is why. Kim Dae-jung sent many N. Korean spies back home, who were serving long prison sentence. These were hardcore. They could have gotten a shortened sentence if they have renounced communism on paper. They refused. However, they were sent as a "goodwill gesture," in return for which we have Kim Jong-il's nukes.
The DJ! That figures. I have been out of the loop and not paying as much attention. At least he is back with the buk-han-nom-dul and not teaching korean at the Defense Language Institute.
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