TOKYO—A former North Korean spy who blew up a South Korean jetliner more than 20 years ago arrived in Japan on Tuesday to meet the families of Japanese kidnapped by the reclusive regime, including one she says coached her on Japanese culture.
Kim Hyon-hui was convicted in South Korea of bombing a Korean Air jet in a 1987 act of sabotage that killed all 115 people aboard, and was sentenced to death. She was later pardoned and became a best-selling author with books about her time as a spy.
She was scheduled to meet with relatives of abductees Yaeko Taguchi and Megumi Yokota, according to Kyodo and Yonhap news agencies. Megumi was kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1977 when she was 13 years old.
It was unclear who initiated the meeting or what its purpose was.
“We can confirm that she has arrived, but can make no other comments on her itinerary due to safety considerations,” said Hideo Ashikawa of the department of the Prime Minister’s office that deals with abduction issues.
North Korea admitted in 2002 that it abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese. The communist regime allowed five to return home later that year, saying the others, including Megumi, were dead.
Tokyo has demanded proof of their deaths and an investigation into other suspected kidnappings.
Kim—who later married a South Korean intelligence officer who investigated her and lives in South Korea—claims her spy training included coaching on Japanese language and culture by Taguchi, who vanished in Tokyo in 1978 when she was 22 years old. Kim met the Japanese woman’s family in Busan, South Korea, in March 2009 and told her son and brother that Taguchi may still be alive.
Kim may also have met Yokota in North Korea before the jetliner bombing.
Japanese immigration law prohibits the entry of foreign nationals sentenced to prison for one year or longer. But the justice ministry issued Kim a special permit, Kyodo said.
Kim was being heavily guarded by Japanese police, and her itinerary kept secret due to security concerns.
Kyodo reported that she will stay in Karuizawa, a popular summer retreat town in central Japan, at former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s vacation home.
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