109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 168
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Condemning the Democratic People’s Republic of 
Korea for the abductions and continued captivity 
of citizens of the Republic of Korea and Japan 
as acts of terrorism and gross violations of 
human rights.
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 168
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas since the end of the Korean War, the Government 
of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has kid-
napped thousands of South Korean citizens and as many 
as a hundred Japanese citizens, including Rumiko 
Masumoto, Megumi Yokota, and Reverend Kim Dong-
shik;
•HCON 168 EH 
Whereas the forced detention and frequent murder of those 
individuals abducted by North Korea have caused untold 
grief and suffering to their families; 
Whereas on September 17, 2002, after considerable pressure 
from the Government of Japan, North Korean leader 
Kim Jong-il admitted that agents of his government had 
abducted thirteen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 
1980s and assured Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro 
Koizumi that this would never happen again; 
Whereas despite assurances to the contrary, North Korea 
continues to order and carry out abductions, and, as re-
cently as August 8, 2004, North Korean agents operating 
along the Chinese border kidnapped Ms. Jin Kyung-sook, 
a former North Korean refugee and South Korean pass-
port-holder; 
Whereas the abduction policy of North Korea has been inte-
gral to its espionage and terrorist activities, and 
abductees have been kidnapped to work as spies, to train 
North Korean agents in language, accents, and culture, 
and to steal identities, as in the case of Mr. Tadaaki 
Hara; 
Whereas the Pyongyang regime used abductee Ms. Yaeko 
Taguchi as the Japanese language instructor for North 
Korean terrorist Kim Hyon-hee, who was caught carrying 
a Japanese passport after planting a bomb on Korean 
Air Lines flight 858 that killed 115 people in 1987; 
Whereas many victims of North Korean abduction have been 
seized during terrorist attacks, as in the hijacking of 
South Korean planes in 1958 and 1969, and, decades 
later, Pyongyang continues to hold twelve passengers of 
a hijacked Korean Air flight, including passenger Mr.
•HCON 168 EH 
Chang Ji-young and flight attendant Ms. Song Kyong-hi, 
who has since been allowed a brief visit by her South Ko-
rean family; 
Whereas North Korean agents have hijacked numerous South 
Korean ships and kidnapped the seamen and fishermen 
aboard the vessels, such as Choi Jong-suk, Kim Soon-
keun, and ten other crewmen of the Dongjin 27, a ship 
that was seized in 1987, and Seoul estimates that hun-
dreds of these abductees are still alive in North Korea; 
Whereas boat hijackings and the kidnapping of fishermen 
have devastated South Korean fishing communities, such 
as Nongso village on the southern island of Geoje, a com-
munity of 210 people that lost 14 sons, husbands, and 
fathers when North Korea seized three ships in 1971 and 
1972; 
Whereas the North Korean authorities conspired with mem-
bers of the Japanese Red Army, a group designated as 
a terrorist organization by the United States Department 
of State, to kidnap Keiko Arimoto, a young Japanese 
woman studying abroad; 
Whereas the Unification Ministry of the Republic of Korea 
has confirmed that 486 abduction cases involving South 
Korean citizens remain unresolved, and that these cases 
include fishermen, seamen, airline passengers, teachers, 
students, and pastors, many of whom are still alive and 
being held in North Korea; 
Whereas North Korean agents have abducted children, caus-
ing unimaginable anguish to parents who live decades 
with the uncertainty of what has happened to their child, 
as in the cases of Takeshi Terakoshi, a thirteen-year-old 
boy kidnapped from a fishing boat with his two uncles,
•HCON 168 EH 
and Lee Min-gyo and Choi Seung-min, two seventeen-
year-old friends abducted off a beach in South Korea; 
Whereas North Korean agents kidnapped thirteen-year-old 
Megumi Yokota, as she was walking home from school, 
and subsequently reported that she married and had a 
daughter in North Korea before committing suicide in 
1993, and that Megumi’s daughter remains there sepa-
rated from her family in Japan; 
Whereas on April 5, 1971, North Korean agents abducted Yu 
Song-gun, a South Korean diplomat stationed at the Em-
bassy of the Republic of Korea in West Germany, his 
wife, and two young daughters, ages 7 and 1, while the 
family was believed to be in Berlin; 
Whereas the Pyongyang regime has abducted a number of 
South Korean ministers who were bravely working to res-
cue North Koreans escaping on the underground railroad 
through China, including Reverend Ahn Seung-woon and 
Reverend Kim Dong-shik, the latter of whose welfare is 
of particular importance to representatives of the State 
of Illinois; 
Whereas on April 21, 2005, the Seoul Central District Court 
convicted Chinese citizen Ryu Young-hwa of assisting 
North Korean agents in the abduction of Reverend Kim 
and, further, that a Chinese court convicted a North Ko-
rean citizen of masterminding the abduction of Reverend 
Ahn, and deported the agent to North Korea in July 
1997 following a two-year prison term; 
Whereas some of the abductees have risked their lives in try-
ing to escape North Korea, as in the case of South Ko-
rean fisherman Im Kuk-jae, who has twice attempted to 
escape since his kidnapping in 1987, and is now believed
•HCON 168 EH 
to be imprisoned in one of North Korea’s notorious labor 
camps; 
Whereas the North Korean regime continues to deceive the 
international community regarding its ongoing abductions 
and has furnished false information concerning eight 
Japanese abductees, including suspicious accounts of 
their supposed premature deaths; 
Whereas the Government of North Korea has never convinc-
ingly accounted for Ms. Rumiko Masumoto and Mr. 
Shuichi Ichikawa, kidnapped by Pyongyang agents from 
a beach in Japan on August 12, 1978, and claims that 
Mr. Ichikawa drowned in the sea, despite his dislike of 
swimming, and that the formerly healthy Ms. Masumoto 
died of a heart attack at the age of 27; 
Whereas North Korea claims abductees Mr. Toru Ishioka and 
Ms. Keiko Arimoto, who were kidnapped separately in 
Europe and later married, supposedly died together with 
their small daughter of gas poisoning in 1988, two 
months after they were successful in getting a letter out 
of North Korea to family members in Japan; 
Whereas although the Pyongyang regime claimed to return 
the alleged cremated remains of Mr. Kaoru Matsuki and 
Ms. Megumi Yokota to Japanese officials, both remains 
appear not to be authentic, and, according to Pyongyang, 
the bodies of the six remaining Japanese abductees have 
conveniently been washed away during flooding and can-
not be recovered to verify the causes of their untimely 
deaths; 
Whereas despite the efforts of the Japanese Government, the 
Pyongyang regime continues to deny any knowledge of 
the abductions of Mr. Yutaka Kume, Mr. Minoru Ta-