Chasing the Shadow of Benefit Ri, North Korea - The Truth of the Yaeko Taguchi Incident (Late 1970s-2000s)

Chasing the Shadow of Benefit Ri, North Korea - The Truth of the Yaeko Taguchi Incident (Late 1970s-2000s)
When Yaeko Taguchi went missing in 1978, the concept of abduction by North Korea was not fully recognized in Japanese society. With the end of rapid economic growth and continuing political unrest, there was information about suspicious vessels and infiltration cases, but few perspectives linking them to systematic abductions. Under the Kim Il Sung regime, North Korea attempted to forcibly secure Japanese-language personnel from outside in order to improve the efficiency of agent training, and Ms. Taguchi became a victim of this. In North Korea, she was forced to change her name to Ri Hyeon, and is said to have been responsible for teaching Japanese to agents, particularly to Kim Hyon-Hui, the perpetrator of the Korean Air jet bombing incident.
In particular, the education of Kim Hyon-Hui, the perpetrator of the Korean Air jet bombing incident, is pointed out. Kim Hyon-Hui testified that she was educated to become Japanese, and Taguchi's name came to the fore, but the Japanese government has avoided making a determination because it is difficult to corroborate this in Japan, which has no diplomatic relations with North Korea. The family was left with the mystery of the disappearance, which was considered evaporation for many years, and the truth remained in a fog. From the late 1990s through the 2000s, the activities of the family and supporters moved public opinion, and public security and criminal investigations outside Japan progressed, but it took time for society to catch up with the certainty of the situation on the ground.
During Koizumi's visit to North Korea in 2002, North Korea acknowledged the abductions, but Ms. Taguchi was presumed dead. The fact that North Korea showed the remains of a different person was a deep shock to Japanese society, and even now the truth and the wish to return home remain. Mr. Taguchi's case is a symbolic event of the post-Cold War shadow, the manipulative structure of the state, and the sense of powerlessness of Japanese society. Behind the name "Lee Benefit" lies the logic of a closed state and the reality of having been stifled for so long.