The family of a Macau woman believed kidnapped by North Korea in 1978 is working with Japanese campaigners to win her release. But so far, Chinese government authorities have refused to hear their pleas.
The case involves Hong Leng-ieng, a 20-year old store clerk at the time of her disappearance. Evidence of her kidnapping and captivity first surfaced in 1988, but only this year her, father and brother have joined efforts to free her after nearly three decades of imprisonment.
Two other guests of the Kim dynasty in North Korea have provided details of Hong's capture and her life in the Hermit Kingdom. A Japanese group, National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN), has gathered evidence in the Hong's case. With the backing of her family, NAKRN has tried to present its research to Chinese officials, so far unsuccessfully.

Kim the kidnapper
Hong's forced journey traces back to 1976. That year, Kim Jong-il, North Korea's current leader and son of then-ruler Kim Il-sung, instituted a program of kidnapping foreign nationals. Abductions mainly took place in nearby South Korea and Japan. However, after Portugal's 1976 revolution, Lisbon established relations with Pyongyang, opening the way for North Korean agents to operate in Macau. Abductees were mainly sought to provide language skills training for North Korean espionage efforts, but some captives also were sought for special professional skills. (See text Behind the Snatches)
The most famous captives were South Korean movie star Choi Un-hee and her husband, movie director Shin Sang-ok, grabbed to kick-start Kim Jong-il's ambitions for a North Korean film industry. The pair escaped during a trip to Vienna in 1986, and two years later, Choi's book recounting their imprisonment was published.

Star witness
In the book, Choi mentioned a kidnapped woman from Macau. South Korea journalists descended on Macau to investigate the case, but Hong's family refused to cooperate and interest in the case dissipated. It wasn't until the release of American deserter Charles Jenkins in 2004 that the story got new legs. Jenkins provided evidence of another 1978 Macau kidnap victim, a Thai woman named Anocha Panchoy who worked at the Hotel Estoril sauna at the time of her capture and, Jenkins said, had been offered to him as a bride. This new information rekindled NARKN's efforts to follow the Macau branch of North Korea's abduction policy.
Last year, Choi met with one of NARKN's vice presidents, Tsutomu Nishioka, and provided additional details about the Macau captive she knew, presumed to be Hong Leng-ieng, who she first met at a lodge for government officials near Kumgangsan Mountain in October 1978. Choi said the woman was a Catholic who'd adopted the Christian name Maria. For three months in 1979, the two women were neighbours in one of the regime's guest houses and spoke frequently.
Hong told Choi that in Macau she had lived with her mother, who worked as a cleaning lady, and her younger brother. Hong's father, a teacher, hadn't been able to flee to Macau along with his family and remained in the mainland. Hong played volleyball and was a member of Macau's squad. She intended to get her university degree, but had been working in a jewellery shop to help pay for her brother's studies. She also sold tickets to the dog races, and just before the kidnapping, Hong began working occasionally as a tour guide.
One night Hong went to a Coloane beach with two men, who claimed to be Japanese. She told Choi she was forced into a small boat then taken to a bigger ship that brought her to North Korea. During the voyage, Hong met another kidnapped woman who looked "ten years older" – almost certainly Anocha Panchoy. Hong said that the other woman complained unwearyingly during the sea voyage, while Hong did little except cry.

Diplomatic impunity
But when both were driven to a shop near Pyongyang's embassy quarter, just after arriving in the capital, it was Hong who managed to escape, Choi said. Hong entered the Indonesian embassy crying for help. Embassy personnel returned her to the kidnappers, and after that, the two Macau captives were separated.
Hong, then still in her early 20s, confided to Choi that she took part in secret parties organized by Kim Jong-il. She said the Dear Leader had promised to arrange a "good marriage" for her.
Choi also recalled seeing Hong in early 1982. At that time, the Macau captive said she was teaching Chinese to North Korean agents. Choi told Nishioka of NARKN that she never saw Hong again after that.

Family meetings
With this detailed account, NARKN president Teruaki Masumoto and vice president Nishioka came to Macau early this year. They told the story to Hong's brother Hong Leng-chun and her father, who has asked not to be identified. The relatives had not known Hong had taken the Christian name Maria, but a check of the local parish records confirmed it. The meeting convinced Hong's family of a "strong possibility our dear relative was kidnapped". The family agreed to travel to South Korea to meet with Choi in hopes of definitive proof.
At that meeting in Seoul in March, the family showed Choi a photo of Hong. Without hesitation, the actress replied, "It's undoubtedly her."
Choi asked Hong's family why they hadn't pursued the leads her book offered nearly 20 years earlier. Hong Leng-chun told her that they'd met with the South Korean reporters who visited Macau in 1988 but refused to be interviewed. The abductee's brother said he and his father were uneasy about events swirling around North Korea at that time, including the downing of Korean Air flight 007, the bombing in Rangoon that killed several South Korean officials, and even Choi Un-hee's kidnapping. They felt keeping a low profile would be the best way to win Hong's release, if she was a prisoner. Six months later, the family had a change of heart and tried unsuccessfully to contact the journalists.
The meeting with Choi helped convince the family to support NARKN's efforts to bring the case to Chinese authorities, though they still favour quiet efforts to free Hong, now age 48.

Rebuffed by Beijing
NARKN been rebuffed in efforts to present its evidence in Hong's case to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. In late August, a NARKN delegation visited Beijing hoping to report its findings on Hong and another Macau woman, So Mio-chun, also believed to have been kidnapped in 1978. The delegation arranged a meeting with Chinese university professors, but the scholars pulled out, reportedly reluctant to discuss the issue after media reports revealed the substance of the talks. China's Foreign Ministry also refused to meet the NARKN group or receive its report.
Hong's family can find comfort only in the encouraging words from Choi at the close of their meeting in Seoul. "She's probably alive," the actress said, "praying daily for the moment when she'll be reunited with her family." Brother Hong Leng-chun confessed, in tears, his own feeling: "She's alive."

Behind the snatches
According to the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN), there are a several reasons why a young Macau woman – or any other foreigner – might have been kidnapped by Pyongyang's regime. North Korean motives could include:
-Eliminating witnesses to North Korean espionage activities.
-Identity theft for secret agent infiltration.
-Obtaining language and culture teachers for North Korean spies.
-Brainwashing captives to become North Korean covert agents
-Getting special talents or knowledge to benefit North Korea.
-Finding brides (or at least concubines) for special residents, including western military deserters and male abductees.
The systematic kidnapping policy was ordered by Kim Jong-il, in 1976, while North Korea was still ruled by his father Kim Il-sung and the global struggle between communism and capitalism was in full flower. Testifying before the US Congress in April, NARKN vice president Yoichi Shimada explained that North Korea is, like the abductees, a prisoner of this bizarre Cold War remnant. "The victims, once freed, might be able to identify North Korean agents operating in Japan and other countries," Shimada explained.
"If North Korea decides to stop all terrorist training operations and call back all its agents and sleeper cells stationed all over the world, then it might release all the teachers – the kidnapped foreigners – in an instant." By continuing to hold its captives, Shimada concluded, North Korea sends a "clear sign that it doesn't intend to distance itself from terrorism".