North Korea’s abduction of my brother Susumu Fujita

North Korea’s abduction of my brother Susumu Fujita

Our family has been living a nightmare since February 7th, 1976 when Susumu went missing without a trace. He was a 19 year-old freshman at Tokyo Gakugei University studying hard to become a teacher.  A member of the university Rugby football team and of the Junior Red Cross trying to help other people, he had absolutely no reason to go missing.  We contacted hundreds of classmates and former classmates of Susumu, called numerous companies where he might have worked part-time, checked many unidentified bodies with the police but found no clue.

Then in 2004, a photo of a Japanese man who is allegedly teaching Japanese at a North Korean spy academy was taken out of North Korea by a defector.  After analysis by Professor Seiji Hashimoto of Tokyo Medical University, a well-known expert of the field, comparing the photo with those of Susumu 30 years ago, it has been concluded that the position of a scar, a mole and the balance of each part of the face perfectly match, and that the man on the photo is definitely Susumu.

The North Korean government has been systematically abducting Japanese citizens to make them into spy teachers and for other reasons, and the North has officially admitted abducting 13 Japanese citizens. In 2002, five abductees were allowed to return but the total number of victims is estimated to be in the hundreds. Please see the following seven minute briefing video made by the Japanese government.
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/prg/prg1786.html

In 2004, former North Korean operative Ahn Myong Jin testified that he saw Susumu in Kim Jong Il Political Military University, or spy academy, in Pyongyang.

In 2006, the Sanikei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper with a circulation of 1.75 million, reported on its front page on January 10th that a North Korean spy ship was witnessed just before Susumu went missing, and radio communications of the ship resembled those when the most famous abductee, Miss Megumi Yokota, was abducted on November 15th, 1977. The report suggested that the Japanese authorities deciphered coded messages used by North Korean operatives and knew what was going on.

In 2007, Weekly Gendai, a Japanese weekly magazine with a circulation of 490,000, reported a confession of a Korean man who took part in Susumu’s abduction. This information was already known to the Japanese authorities and a North Korean-owned hospital in Tokyo, where Susumu was detained, was searched by the Public Security Bureau of Tokyo Metropolitan Police on October 14th, 2005.

Unfortunately, the Japanese government has not officially identified Susumu as an abduction victim and despite my repeated requests, they have not demanded the North Korean government to release him. The Japanese government is only focusing on 17 officially identified victims, 13 of them admitted by the North Korean government, and hundreds of so called “missing Japanese probably related to North Korea” have been virtually abandoned.

Below is  the website of the Government of Japan Headquarters for the Abduction Issue,  headed by the Prime Minister, and it explains officially identified cases in  detail. http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/ratimondai/jian.html However, hundreds of unidentified cases are only briefly  mentioned and we have no one to turn to. http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/ratimondai/kanousei.html
I would greatly appreciate it if you  could help us by protesting the North Korean Permanent Mission to the UN in New  York.
Ambassador Sin Son Ho DPRK Permanent Mission to the U.N. 820 Second Avenue, 13th Floor New  York, NY 10017 Tel: +1(212)972-3105/3106 Fax: +1(212)972-3154
Thank you.
Takashi Fujita Brother of Susumu  Fujita