I saw no footage of the 'see-off' at the airport in Pyongyang, but there might be a Japanese wire service photo of the US defector at their airport. Of course, the American mentioned has surfaced in the past in North Korean movies playing Americans trying to undermine the socialist revolution and unification. The (former) North Carolinian is fully involved in the North Korean espionage infrastructure and training of agents in English. He was either kidnapped then brainwashed, or otherwise went over as an indealist/socialist. If he had gone to Japan, he probably would have been tagged and detained by the Japanese police based on a request from certain people in the US Embassy who would attempt a debrief, or a 'flipping back'. Considering they have two teenaged, mixed race kids in Pyongyang following in mommy and daddy's footsteps, i.e. at a foreign language institute affiliated with North Korean espionage, it is not expected that elements of this family or the family itself would ever want or be allowed out of that utopian hellhole known as the DPRK.