Published on November 11, 2005

Kin of kidnap victims from Japan meet missing woman’s family, offer assistance. Relatives of Japanese kidnap victims confirmed yesterday that Chiang Mai native Anocha Panjoy had been abducted to North Korea nearly 30 years ago, as stated in the memoirs of an American army deserter.

After a visit to Chiang Mai, Teruaki Masumoto, secretary-general of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, said that information he obtained about Anocha from her brother Sukham Panjoy confirmed that she was a friend of Hitomi Soga, wife of American Charles Robert Jenkins, who had spent decades in captivity inside the communist country before being recently freed.

In his Japanese-language memoirs “Kokuhaku” (To Tell The Truth), Jenkins reveals that Anocha is alive in North Korea. He says that after being kidnapped in Macau 27 years ago, she was forced to marry another American army deserter, Larry Allan Abshier, who has since died. The couple reportedly had no children.

Masumoto came to Thailand, together with Tsutomu Nishioka, vice-president of the relatives’ support group, to help untangle the mystery surrounding Anocha’s alleged kidnapping by North Korean agents and her subsequent fate.

Sukham has accepted their offer to visit Japan next month to speak with Soga about his sister.

“I hope my sister is still alive and she will be able to return home eventually,” Sukham said after an hour-long meeting with the two Japanese campaigners in his home district of San Kamphaeng.

“If I learn she is happy to remain there [in North Korea], we’ll accept her decision,” he added. “Otherwise, we will do our best to bring her back home.”

Foreign Ministry officials are trying to determine conclusively if Anocha lives in North Korea. A North Korean diplomat earlier dismissed the claims of her abduction as unfounded.

Masumoto and Nishioka will today meet Foreign Ministry officials to exchange information.

The Nation

Chiang Mai

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