Manga Published in Japan amid Little Progress over N. Korea Abductions

Tokyo, June 5 (Jiji Press)--A manga mixing fiction with facts and actual tactics used by North Korea to kidnap Japanese nationals has been published in Japan, in order to draw attention to the abduction issue, which has seen little progress for more than 20 years.

"It was difficult to create a manga based on the (decades-old) abduction issue, which does not yet have an ending," manga artist Akiko Tomita said at an event held in Musashino, Tokyo, on April 10 to celebrate the publishing of "Ore Antif@ Rachi Ge no Kyosei Event kara Nigeraremasen." The manga with more than 400 pages was completed without Tomita being paid for the work.

Adding a unique twist, the manga is about a Japanese man becoming a North Korean operative to kidnap other Japanese nationals. The work incorporates several abduction cases that actually happened.

Sprinkling a bit of fiction for a dramatic effect, the manga depicts the case of Yutaka Kume, who was kidnapped by a North Korean agent from the coast of Ushitsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, in September 1977 at the age of 52 as one of the real incidents.

It features actual events surrounding the incident, including a worker at a local inn who became suspicious of the situation, police arresting the agent's collaborator who was a Korean resident in Japan and the collaborator confessing the abduction of Kume.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]