So I watched a show on PBS...

about the people kidnapped by Korea in the late 70's called Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story. My question is, are the people still tore up as much as they were on the show? I'm wondering if the story is nation wide or just in the regions where the people were from. It was pretty interesting that after 20 - 30 years people were still fighting to see what happened and if they were still alive. Like N. Korea would give anyone a straight answer.

 

It was nationwide news here (Think Katrina level) for months. It dethroned the then king of news, Tama-chan. It was pretty massive. Everyone hated North Korea anyway, but that just fueled the fire. North Korea had the balls to say they'd let 5 of them go back temporarily. Koizumi gave N. Korea the finger once they arrived, figuratively speaking. I give the guy props for that.

They taught Korean spies Japanese, translated, and whatnot. I have no clue what the PBS special said but they never claimed to have been kidnapped for reasons of espionage.

It is the soul reason Japan would not cooperate or send aid with the rest of the G8 this past year when N. Korea were negotiating aid to stop their nuclear program. According to N. Korea, Japan was simply hindering the entire operation. The US also took quite a bit of heat from Japan for helping them without Japan getting proper closure.

Whether or not the abductees offered any government secrets or value on an espionage level (surely they knew they would have none) this case has been the single largest focal point of hate between the two nations for the last 30 years.

They kidnapped men as well.

Wikipedia in English
Wikipedia in Japanese <-- shitloads more info