A 13-year-old schoolgirl walking home after badminton practice. A 28-year-old restaurant employee sent by his boss to Vienna. A young couple on a date, driving to the beach to see the sunset. They are among at least 17 Japanese — possibly many more than that — who were abducted by North Korea more than three decades ago.
The apparent reasons included training agents in Japanese language and social norms, or stealing identities so the agents could masquerade as Japanese for espionage and terrorism aimed mainly at South Korea.
North Korea allowed five to return in 2002, but the fate of the others remains unclear. In talks with Japan in Beijing on Tuesday, North Korea is expected to detail plans to investigate what happened to them, a possible step toward their eventual repatriation to Japan.
The 12 who Japan says have never come back paint a picture of lives interrupted, as if in mid-sentence, and irrevocably changed. At least three were students in Europe who may have been lured to North Korea by Japanese left-wing radicals. Others were bundled into small boats on the Japanese coast to cross the water to North Korea.
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