In the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea organised a kidnapping campaign in "enemy" countries. As one of its closest neighbours, Japan became a prime target. The programme, decided at the highest level of the Communist state, was likely intended to train North Korean spies in foreign languages and customs. FRANCE 24's Louis Belin, Philippe Chambret, Constantin Simon and Aruna Popuri went to the Japanese city of Niigata, where a teenage girl was abducted in 1977.
It was not until 2002, when the dictatorship in Pyongyang officially recognised some of the kidnappings.
Although North Korea finally admitted to 13 abductions and eventually sent some of these Japanese citizens home, Tokyo has evidence of 17 kidnappings. But there could have been many more; perhaps into the hundreds.
One particular case has captured the public's imagination: that of Megumi Yokota. She was just 13 when she was kidnapped almost half a century ago from Niigata on the Japanese coast. She has never returned and Pyongyang say she died, but her family refuses to give up hope.
