Inside North Korea’s Disturbing Kidnapping Industry That Saw Hundreds Of Japanese People Abducted

Inside North Korea’s Disturbing Kidnapping Industry That Saw Hundreds Of Japanese People Abducted

On the evening of November 15, 1977, a young girl named Megumi Yokota was walking home alone after badminton practice in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The walk should have only taken Megumi seven minutes, but she never returned. ⁠

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Instead, she woke up on a fishing boat bound for North Korea with at least 17 other victims. Little did she know that this was part of a larger North Korean kidnapping campaign — which abducted perhaps hundreds of Japanese people in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And only five of the Japanese abductees were ever seen alive again. ⁠

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This is the disturbing true story of the North Korean kidnapping industry - read more at the link in our profile.⁠

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⁠Now The Story In Details

Between 1977 and 1983, at least 17 Japanese nationals were abducted by North Korean spies, though Japan claims it is likely that hundreds more were taken.

On the evening of Nov. 15, 1977, 13-year-old Megumi Yokota was walking home with friends from badminton practice in Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

The walk from the badminton court to her front door took only seven minutes, and Megumi was a punctual girl. When she left her friends at a street corner, there were only another 100 yards between her and her waiting mother. But when Megumi failed to return home, her parents knew something was terribly wrong. When an extensive search of the area yielded no clues, Sakie and Shigeru Yokota believed their daughter was gone forever.

But the truth was far worse.

Megumi awoke in the hold of a rusted fishing boat on its way back to North Korea. She was one of at least 17 confirmed victims of the so-called North Korea abduction project, a nefarious mission that saw potentially hundreds covertly stolen from their homes.

It was believed that between 1977 and 1983, Japanese citizens were abducted for various reasons, like bringing new skills into the notoriously reclusive country, teaching Japanese to North Korean spies, assuming their identities, or becoming wives to a group of North Korea-based Japanese revolutionaries.

This is the crazy true story of North Korea’s kidnapping program.

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