Military Facilities and North Korean Abduction in Japan

Military Facilities and North Korean Abduction in Japan

Shoji Sugino, Deputy Secretary-General of COMJAN

   North Korea has always thought of the U.S as its enemy since the nation was established in 1948.

The U.S has been North Korea’s biggest enemy even though there have been big changes in the situation such as the Cold War in the West and East, the division of the Korean Peninsula and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

   North Korea has seen South Korea as a puppet of the U.S and so has Japan which has been one of the U.S’s allies. Especially Japan has no laws to control foreign agents, and it is difficult for westerners to distinguish Japanese and North Koreans both of whom are Asians on their appearance.

There are many Korean-Japanese agents for North Korea who were born in Japan before the World War II and speak Japanese fluently. They can do espionage activities integrating themselves in the Korean-Japanese community. In a word, convenient conditions exist for North Korean agents.

U.S Military Information Is Crucial for the Very Existence of North Korea

It can be said that the deployment of the U.S military forces, the founding of the Japan Self Defense Forces and military alliance between Japan and the U.S have been crucial for the very existence of North Korea as a member of the Eastern Bloc.

North Korea has penetrated in Japan and conducted espionage activities in the 1940s when the state was established. Most North Korean agents who have been arrested in action in Japan

confessed that they had tried to acquire information on Japanese politics, economy, diplomatic relations with foreign nations and military information of Japan and the U.S.

   For example, Megumi Yao, the spouse of a Yodo-go hijacker, opened a bar in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1988 where high ranking officials of the Bureau of National Defense, students of the National Defense Academy visited as customers. It can be said that not only North Korean agents but also Japanese ones have shared a mission to collect information.  

What kind of military strategy do the U.S forces follow against USSR and North Korea? How are they deployed? Do they communicate smoothly with the Japan Self Defense Forces? Do they bring nuclear weapons into Japan? How do they detect the whereabouts of submarines? Will they attack Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea? Although the quality of information is varied, North Korean espionage network continuously collects, organized and analyze the acquired information.

North Korean agents have been incessantly trying collect information: the Defense White Book published by the Ministry of Defense, newspaper and weekly magazine articles as well as those written by experts and transcripts of lectures. They are likely to amass an incredibly large amount of information and carefully analize it.

Missing Japanese Related to Military Facilities

Quite a large number of missing cases has occurred near the facilities of the U.S forces and the Japan Defense Force. Among rougly 470 missing Japanese identified in COMJAN’s lists 100+ disappeared and/or lived near the military facilities including a former member of the Japan Self Defense Force. Another person whose family members have lost contact after he had asked them to send his family register document in order to work for a U.S base. Although we do not assert those missing were all abducted for obtaining military related information, we have to investigate those cases keeping its possibility in mind.

For what purpose have they been implemented if indeed done done by North Korean agents?

(1) In order to know what kind of military strategy the U.S and Japanese forces follow againt the Eastern Bloc and North Korea, the agents approach and abduct in some cases those knowledgeable about the deployment of combat planes and aircraft carriers, the development of new weapons, human resources and security situations at military facilities.

(2) Members of the Japan Self Defense Force have special skills and licenses which are not available for ordinary citizens such as flying fighter jets, sailing warships and controlling wireless transmitters.

The agents try to not only acquire know-how but also abduct those persons themselves in some cases.  

(3) The agents can reasonably guess the deployment of the air force through the observation of departure and arrival of fighter jets and patrol planes if they live near the air base; they can pick the sudden increase of transmission and reception though it is next to impossible to intercept and decipher the encrypted wireless communications by US forces.  The Eastern Bloc and/or North Korea would be able to sabotage US military actions if the antenna had been damaged in the case of emergency.

(4) In order to execute the activities above, the agents need to grasp the security conditions and geographical situations around the military bases and facilities, and have abducted local residents to facilitate their operations.

(5) It is probable that some non-related persons have been “accidentally” abducted because they saw espionage activities. Even those who did not see anything but by whom the agents mistakenly believed to be seen may have been abducted.

North Korea Never Gives up Nuclear Weapons and Missiles

The U.S. is by the most important player and resided in the center stage in the world. Not only North Korea but also any other countries are eager to acquire information on the world strongest military, while the U.S. makes every effort to keep its vital information from outside eyes. Effectively the U.S. has led the world in not just military but economic and societal aspects. Although communism was raging in the 20th century, the Cold War was over by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

However, North Korea has survived the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is true that Chinese and Russian support is one of the reason for North Korea’s existence, but it is far less than in the Cold War years. It may be the case that China and Russia do not want to let North Korea collapse but make it a threat to them. This lukewarm attitude of both countries is one of the factors contributing to North Korea’s unending poverty and famine in the last few decades.

It is better to understand that North Korea is a totalitarian country under the Kim dynasty rather than a communist one. The collapse of the country means that of the regime, consequently the conviction of Kim family. Therefore Kim family and its accomplices are desperate to keep the regime intact and will never give up the development of nuclear weapons and missiles no matter how friendly Kim Jong-Eun makes hugs with former US President Donald Trump or South Korean President Moon Je-In saying “I will give up nuclear weapons.” Upon renouncing nuclear weapons, the Kim dynasty immediately collapse.

Recently North Korea has launched the missiles. Whether military or civilian, information and technology transmitted to North Korea will be utilized for weapon development and espionage activities.

Compared to the previous Nodon and Tepodon missiles, the shooting range and precision of the current ones have been dramatically improved, and the size of nuclear war heads has become more compacts. The highly technical knowledge of abducted Japanese may contribute to such improvement.

 Because we have given the monster named North Korea leeway for years, it has developed missiles reaching the North American Continent and the space.

(Translated by Yuki Yakabe, Executive member of COMJAN, 

Supported by Yoshitaka Fukui, Professor of Aoyama Gakuin University）