#371: 9 University Students Hijack A Japanese Plane to North Korea

29:39They can't storm it. The hijackers have explosives, but they can't just let the plane full of civilians fly straight into North Korea, so they need to devise up a plan within an hour. they make Kimpo Airport which is the smaller airport in Seoul not Incheon but Kimpo they make it look like a North Korean airport what in the world the amount of coordination that it takes is astronomical they have to get most of the commercial airliners off the tarmac all of the international flights all the South Korean planes with Korean air Aseana Airlines they got to get it off any truck with a logo that's South Korean or Western because a lot of the fueling trucks They have the shell logo on the side.

30:22Has to be gone. They have to cover up all advertisements because there is no advertising in North Korea. They have to procure North Korean flags, swap out all the South Korean flags for North Korean flags. They have to take down all the international flags that some airports have like Kimpo did. And they have to do all of that. They have to procure North Korean military uniforms, dress everyone up in them. They even went as far to get a bunch of girls in uniform to sing the national anthem of North Korea. this was not an easy feat but they forgot there was an american soldier yeah because the american military were involved they obviously tried to hide the people that weren't obviously korean looking or didn't resemble a north korean but um it was hard there's a lot of coordination the map that japanese authority gave the pilots was intentionally bad so that they wouldn't rely on the map and they would rely on the radio the man that intercepted the radio with the thick korean accent that said this is pyongyang tune into this radio it was a south korean military man they did cross the dmz though they did cross and the the man the south korean man panicked and was giving them directions to slowly u-turn without making it obvious back into south korea south korean fighter jets appeared and then guided them into kimpo what a plan within the hour they managed to trick the hijackers that they were landing in North Korea.

31:47But now the ruse is up. They know. And now the negotiations shall begin. Estimates show that about$200 million worth of U.S. currency, meaning U.S. cash in circulation right now being used, is fake, is counterfeit. To be fair, there's about$2.3 trillion in circulation right now. So the odds of you having a fake bill by accident are pretty low, but it's never zero. because there's what's known as super fakes, super notes. They are made with the same high-tech color shifting ink that the US$100 bill is made from. They print on the same precise composition of fibers because did you know the US bills are not printed on paper?

32:28It's a mixture of cotton and linen. That's what the bills are made of. The correct blend requires a very special papermaking machine that is nearly impossible to purchase. And then to get the formula down pat, very difficult. the engravings are typically even better than what's produced in the u.s these super notes they are most people won't even be able to tell the difference between a super note and a real 100 bill that little pen that they give you at work to check for bills or at least that's what they gave me i thought they were foolproof they're not they're not going to catch this that you know you put it up to the light and you look at the hologram or the little transparency that's not going to catch this for super notes it takes sophisticated forensic analysis for most of them to be confirmed as counterfeit currency.

33:15It said to create that level of super note, you need facilities worth over a hundred million dollars to produce counterfeit bills of this caliber. No crime ring is willing to invest that much to make some fake dollar bills. It is speculated that there's only one group that would do something like this at the scale that it's being done. North Korea is allegedly the biggest counterfeiter of U.S. currency. That's crazy. So they call it like a two birds one stone allegedly is they make a lot of money from the counterfeit bills for the North Koreans but it's also to diminish the U.S. dollar. It's almost some people from the U.S.

33:57treasury have considered an act of war. In Thailand the police are starting to notice more and more U.S. hundred dollar bills stacking up on their desk. they're all from the banks super fakes counterfeit they're all super notes the thai police start their investigations and it leads them to this small inconspicuous little office in cambodia they raid the facilities and ultimately they arrest a man in connection with the high quality counterfeit u.s bills in circulation and the man claims he's a north korean diplomat which originally makes sense. North Korea, like I said, was still probably known for creating near perfect super notes.

34:37I mean, this makes a lot of sense, right? They're allegedly bringing in tens of millions of dollars a year from making counterfeit US dollar bills. North Korea denies it, of course, but the US has tracked millions of dollars worth of super notes being smuggled into the US and it all traces back eventually to North Korea. The man in the office with the super notes claims to be a North Korean diplomat, but they all know that's not true. They run as Prince. He's not North Korean. He's Japanese. His real name is Yoshimi Tanaka. He was one of the members of the hijacking group of Japan Airlines 351.

35:14The hijackers had not been heard from for the past 20 years. Everyone thought they were either dead or held captive in North Korea. What the hell is this man doing in Thailand? This is 20 years after the hijacking. There is no set number or value to human life until you're a hostage negotiator. Then suddenly there's a very real price for life. The proposed deal that authorities give the plain hijackers is quite simple. One man's life in exchange for all the others. Let all the hostages go. Let all the civilians go. And we will give you one man in exchange it's simple the hijackers are like this man better be special he is the vice minister of transport of japan release the hostages and take the vice minister of transportation to north korea that is the deal one person for a hundred people because north Korea would probably be more interested in a politician.

36:18Okay. 50 hours. The plane has been parked at Kimpo in South Korea for 50 hours when Vice Minister Yamamura offers himself up as an exchange. At first, the hijackers don't want to take it, but they look at the passengers and all the passengers are on edge. They're ready to do something crazy to get off this freaking plane. The AC has shut off because you need fuel for that. During the mid-afternoon, temperatures inside the plane are reaching 104 degrees. The air circulation is horrid. The air is stale. The toilets are fully backed up, meaning the flushing isn't even working. The toilet in the back is overflowing and there is nothing they can do to escape this scent and there is no air circulation.

36:58The men have been tied up to their chairs. Everyone who's not tied up, even if they're strangers, are having to help wipe the sweat off their brows. At first, everybody was calm. They were ready to be accommodating so that they can get out with their lives. But now, now they're getting anxious. They're not even allowed to eat. They all scarfed down the food that's already on the plane. And when the authorities offered to bring in new food for the passengers, the hijackers denied. They're scared that the food is laced with sleeping drugs that would knock them out, give the authorities enough time to break in and free the passengers and arrest the nine hijackers.

37:31The passengers are starting to feel the heat. The lead hijacker looks at the others. the passengers have reached their limit we have to do something which is the exact same conversation happening outside of the plane with Japan South Korea and allegedly the CIA there are a lot of higher ups with their own ways of wanting to handle this gathered in the same room from Japan you have the vice minister of political affairs but the vice minister of transport members from the ministry of transport as well as the ambassador of Japan for South Korea they're present because the hijackers, like I said, are all Japanese and it's a Japanese commercial airliner.

38:07And most of the passengers are Japanese nationals. But because the hostage plane is now on South Korean soil, South Korea has a bunch of military units, defense minister, transportation minister, interior minister, all present. Then the U.S. allegedly gets involved. Now, South Korea-based U.S. troops arrive at the scene. That is a known fact. Some sources allege that the CIA got involved in the negotiations because, well, the U.S. military does typically get involved in most things South Korea related. They do have like a treaty and it's it's a whole thing. But also there are two American nationals on board, like I said, the Pepsi executive and the Roman Catholic priest.

38:44So it appears that them landing in South Korea was coordinated by the three groups in record time within the hour. But now now they're all stressed. And now that the plane is on South Korean soil. They can see the plane. They can see the hostages. The hijackers are pissed that this is not Kim's land. Now what? Now suddenly all these people have different interests. Of course, the ultimate interest for all parties is the safety of the hostages. But South Korea knows that the whole world is watching this. And if this doesn't go the way it's supposed to, South Korea could be seen as an easy target for hijacking and terrorist groups.

39:19The U.S. likely has a pride thing here. If the CIA is involved, which people are speculating they are, then they better get a deal done because really the CIA can't take care of a hostage plane, most powerful intelligence agency in the world. And you can't even talk a few university students off of Boeing. Japan likely has the worst situation in their hands. Their citizens are the hijackers. Most of the passengers are Japanese citizens, but now they're in another country causing an international situation. Nobody's having a good time here. They try walking through all sorts of scenarios. Okay, let's try ambushing them at night.

39:54Turn off all the airport lights so that they can't see anything outside. We force entry, but that could result in too many casualties. They could start blowing up the plane. They thought about lacing the food that they tried to send in with sleeping pills. But again, that would result, that could result in innocent casualties. The people on the plane are going to be eating the food. The nine hijackers, the odds that some of them don't eat the food and take turns keeping watch is very high. The authorities are doing anything they can to scrape together a single coherent thought, an idea, but all of it leads to one conclusion.

40:26There is no way to get inside this plane without risking the passengers. Inside the plane, an older man stands up. He throws his hands in the air and screams, kill me then! If you're gonna kill me, just do it now! The leader of the hijacker smirks and starts slowly walking up to the old man. He gets in his face. If you tell me to kill you, I'll kill you. Another hostage taker walks up to the leader and calmly hands him a sword. The leader takes it without even looking at him. He never breaks eye contact with the old man all the way until the old man slowly calmly sits back down without saying another word.

41:02The authorities outside are actually quite impressed by this whole situation, by how long the hijackers are holding out. They're not giving in, not even in the slightest. Just listening to their voices, it doesn't appear that they're losing steam either they sound just as determined as ever why are they parked there for 50 hours if they're going to go to north korea they need fuel it takes 50 hours no south korea is refusing to let them fuel oh yeah a lot of it also has to do with posturing i think perhaps a lot of the authorities did care for the civilians involved i would hope so but knowing the way politics works in most countries, including ours, the United States, I think they care to a degree.

41:45I think what they cared most about, though, is that the whole world is watching. And if they let this plane of innocent civilians go into North Korea, the message that it sends of where North Korea's power is in relation to Japan and South Korea is going to be disastrous. It's definitely a political mind game. And I think the passengers are being swept. Tamiya, the leader of the group, tells the authorities, we are determined to go to North Korea, determined to do everything necessary to get there and receive military training. Eventually, we will return across the sea to Japan to start a revolution.

42:22We are determined. We are going to do this no matter how high the walls between the nations may stand. The Japanese ambassador to Korea tries to reason with the hijackers. Do not make light of your lives. You are all still so young. you should think about the future and not act so rashly. We cannot trust the words of some lying diplomat. And do the North Koreans know that you're coming? Silence. We have not made contact. More silence. Because they're going to go into North Korea without a plan, without knowing about Kimi Sung, if he's going to open their arms to them, or if he's going to kill them.

43:00The ambassador gets stopped by his assistant and all the Japanese official, almost in tandem stop what they're doing and listen they have all just been informed north korea has made contact with japan what again this is so incredibly rare they have no diplomatic relations they don't have ambassadors for each other the message is sent by north korea the safety of the aircraft through our airspace is guaranteed all aboard the aircraft will be treated humanely and the aircraft will be returned north korea is willing to take the hijackers in what does that even mean what about the hostages exactly what does that even mean yeah japan has to do something if north korea assures them that the flight is going to be safe then the best choice would to let them go to north korea right i mean them as in the hijackers not the civilians they cannot let 99 civilians go into north korea that's crazy the negotiations are still on one life in exchange for all the rest take the vice minister of transport with you into north korea and give up all the civilians it's easier to control one person than it is to control 99 people then and only then can the plane get refueled and head straight into Pyongyang but also the guy who's the minister of transport yes you think that's like him willingly uh yes he offered himself up and um I do think that there is some context to be had here in America I think it's a little bit different in places like japan and i would say a lot more of the eastern countries it's almost his career is over unless he does something oh this is his basically his fault you're saying yes they're gonna say it's his fault for not protecting his constituents wow so he's never gonna get re-elected his career is over this is a failure on his part he let it happen so unless he 99 lives is already on him yes whereas i think it may be in places like the u.s it wouldn't be on these people it'd just be like okay you either handled it well or poorly but it wouldn't necessarily be their fault that hijackers did this but in japan it might be considered his fault to a degree yes yes the social pressure yes very very strong he offers himself up so the hijackers they finally agree and after four days and three nights on the plane parked in Seoul they finally agreed to let the hostages go.

45:26Surprisingly, on the way out, many of the hostages would wish the hijackers the best of luck on their mission. One of the hostages would later say, as individuals, they were very polite and very pleasant companions. The hijackers were part of the quote Red Army, which is a militant sub-faction of a political organization called the Communist League in Japan. So to put it simply, without getting too political, because I'm truly not at all well-versed in Japanese politics, not even a little bit, but their goals were overthrow the Japanese government, incite a communist revolution in Japan, contribute to a global communist revolution, establish international basis for other revolutions to pull resources from.

46:07Those were their main goals. And the way that they were going to achieve these goals was not in the form of winning elections, getting votes. They were going to rob banks to fund their missions, attack police stations and government agencies, including the prime minister's personal residence. They're actually responsible or partly responsible for a massive massacre. They've taken 50 innocent people hostage before for the purpose of negotiating to get fellow members out of prison. They were able to get a six million dollar ransom from the Japanese government after holding another group of people hostage.

46:38They've set off car bombs that have killed multiple innocent civilians, injuring multiple innocent civilians. They've attacked embassies, primarily U.S. and British embassies. they're categorized as a highly violent group to get what they want so that has nothing to do with the actual party this is like the sub faction the militant subgroup they're very extreme the whole point of even hijacking a plane was to get to cuba to get military training they wanted highly specialized militarized arms training so that they can hold revolutions on a global scale and likely so that they can pull off more of these deadly missions with more efficiency which is terrifying but one of the passengers the hostages said in that moment when you see the nine of them screaming up and down jumping together in joy we're we're going to Pyongyang we're going to Pyongyang this is the new base for our international revolution all the passengers could think was they're just so young

47:51the hijackers would even sit around and tell the passengers about their beliefs in a sense trying to convince them to believe what they believe and even at the end food was brought in by authorities and at the last meal the hijackers did a toast and said it's time for us to part ways we wish to convey our deepest gratitudes to you thank you everyone sorry for being such a burden let's have a little farewell celebration we will fight to the end on behalf of the world's oppressed we will persist and do our best until the end we have caused you great unhappiness but we hope you understand that we did it because we love japan and we want to make japan a better place for all.

48:31Everyone cheered. I guess you have to cheer, right? 2.27pm, the door to the plane opens for the last time in Seoul. The news reporters from three different countries are standing near the plane. Military officials with snipers pointed at the door are stationed across the airport. A woman in a kimono appears at the door. A flight attendant. She takes the first step down the plane stairs. then a man in a suit comes out behind her and slowly one by one the passengers start making their way down the stairs and the minute that they touch the ground off the steps the reporters start cheering getting louder with each person that steps onto the ground when about half the hostages are released the whole tarmac goes silent because this was all agreed upon between the two parties the hijackers and the authorities at that moment a hijacker appears at the top One of the nine.

49:27And then I'm just going to call the vice minister, just the vice minister from now on, but he is the vice minister of transport. You get it. The vice minister shows up at the bottom. They both stare at each other. Yamamura said this before climbing up the stairs. He said, to tell you the truth, my legs were shaking. The hijacker takes one step. Vice minister takes one step. They do this slowly, one step at a time until they have this tense moment where they both step on at the same step at the center of the stairs. So they do this because the hijackers were scared they're going to let off most of the hostages and then the vice minister would not board.

50:06But then now the authorities are like, well, if we let the vice minister board early, what if you just close the door and take half the hostages and the vice minister? So that's why they're sending out a hijacker as a placeholder. Okay, what is that person going to do? He's going to go back onto the plane once the rest of the hostages are released. So it's like an insurance policy for both sides. Yeah, yeah, okay. Now, they have this very tense moment where they both step onto the same step at the middle of the stairs. And then they walk past each other. And they're listening from behind. And when they hear the other party take a step, they take a step.

50:43And now the hijackers, they have one of their own outside the plane. And the government officials have one of their own inside the plane. That's how you exchange hostages. Once the vice minister is tied up in a seat, most of the other hostages are let out one by one until the very last one. He appears at the top and the hijacker appears at the bottom. And they do the same thing. So by the end of it, all the hostages are out and the hijacker and the vice minister are back in. You say the vice minister came back out? No, no, no. The last hostage. Oh, the last hostage. Oh. Does that make sense? So half the hostages, then they exchange a vice minister for the hijacker.

51:25Then the last hostage and the hijacker swap. Do a swap. Yes. Wow. So another very tense meeting happens. And when they step on the same step in the middle of the stairs, the hostage looks at the hostage taker and says, take care of yourself, okay? Keep a sharp eye. Keep a sharp eye. The hijacker says, okay, until we meet again. they both smile and watch each other walk away so polite huh yeah the hostage exchange was now complete the plane positioned itself and 83 hours after being hijacked they were now departing for north korea some of the hostages even took out their handkerchiefs to wave them at the plane that was flying away what about the pilots the pilots are in there yeah do we know how many two pilots and i think another crew member so they still have three more hostage yes for everyone else the authorities watching them taking off getting higher and higher in the sky it's a grim moment mainly because nobody knows nobody knows what's gonna happen in north korea but also nobody knows what's gonna happen to the vice minister and nobody knows that all the weapons that the hijackers were threatening them with were just toys it's fake knife fake knives fake bombs fake everything everything was fake it was all a lie like i said a young woman in japan is sitting in front of a clairvoyant she is desperate for some guidance at this point she's felt this feeling of loss for the past few years of her life and it just won't go away.

53:07And the clairvoyant tells her, soon, before you turn 30, your fortune will change. You will find love. You will get married. Yes, but how likely even is that? For the past almost decade, okay, no, more like eight years, her fortune has been decidedly shitty, okay? Her boyfriend, the one she met while working as a nurse at Tokyo University, the one that she fell in love with almost instantly, it was so sudden, she said the minute that she laid eyes on him, She was ready to trust him with her entire life. Her boyfriend, that guy, he's in North Korea and he hasn't written a single letter. She has no idea what he's been doing.

53:43If he's moved on, if he still thinks about her, nothing. She doesn't even know if he's alive. Side note, he didn't even tell her that he was going to take a plane hostage in case she reported him. He just told her that he's not going to see her for a year or two, but she should pay attention to the news. That's it. And then he hijacked a commercial airplane. But this is the sign that she needs from the clairvoyant. to somehow to do whatever it takes get herself to north korea to marry the man she loves one of the nine plane hijackers because why she loves him yes wow that's some next level love there was a lot of conversation of if south korea had not let them land in seoul would things have played out differently probably it said that kimmy sung's favorite thing about this whole situation was it was a massive slap in the face to the Western countries.

54:38Well, some of them, first of all, the hostage situation made international news. And to think that three countries, allegedly Japan, South Korea, and probably the United States could not offer the hijackers. Something could not force them or negotiate with them. The fact that the hijackers didn't even want to be there in the first place. They didn't want to be in Japan. They don't like Japan. They want to hold a revolution. They don't like South Korea. They don't want to be in South Korea. They want to be in North Korea. That's the biggest win. It's free, natural, easy propaganda for the world.

55:09So back when Kimi Sung was running North Korea, North Korea was, it wasn't what it is today. A lot of people felt sympathy for North Korea. There were a lot of people who actually understood why he might do something like this, why he might turn away from a capitalistic world. it was not what it is today like people were not starving the people were not dying so there were a lot of primarily university students from all over the world that actually sympathized a lot with North Korea and actually kind of to a degree thought maybe Kim Il-sung knows a little something something we don't know yeah so the university students they self-exiled themselves to distance themselves from the rotten capitalistic society of japan this is good that's how he felt kim's reading the poem that they all wrote him oh yeah they're in north korea now and they've been there for a few years and they're writing poems they're living in the little village little japan yeah but they can't do anything they can go anywhere for now oh they write kim a poem and it reads you raised us nameless as we were and entrusted us with the japanese revolution in the love of our father our leader we face the glorious battle such love such kindness we hold it in our hearts we offer everything to our great general with the guidance of the great general the future of japan will flower we are soldiers of the premier we advance along the road of loyalty oh our fatherly great general our loyal hearts pray you will live 10 000 years just years after they landed in North Korea the hijackers were now Kim Aesung's golden pieces in his little game to world domination the landing in North Korea was rough just like every other part of the hijackers trips the pilots on Japan Airlines 351 had no contact with air traffic controls of North Korea the sun is setting they've been doing circles in Pyongyang they don't know where the airport is they basically have to land now or else they're screwed they have never been to the Pyongyang airport.

57:14They can't even locate it. The best option they have was to land on this tiny little landing strip about 15 miles from Pyongyang International Airport. They're one step away from driving off the landing strip. And then finally, 13 people step off the plane. Nine hijackers, three crew members, and the vice minister of transport, Yamamura. One of the hijackers would later admit, we didn't know if we would be chased off the moment we landed at Pyongyang or be thrown into a prison or if we would be told to leave immediately. But instead of being tense, they were instantly treated like heroes. One of the hijackers said, we were put up at a hotel in Pyongyang the first night.

57:53We almost expected to be escorted straight to like an internment camp. So it was unexpectedly very nice treatment. After meeting with the authorities, we were shown to the hotel dining room where we had this full banquet, a full course, multiple course Korean banquet. I have never eaten at such a banquet before in my life. The crew members, the vice minister, were allowed to fly back to Japan after being wined and dined for a few days. But they had to kickstart their own plane. OK, so to put it simply, North Korea did not have a battery starter for a Boeing plane at their disposal. Japan was frantically trying to send one.

58:27But North Korea was like, you cannot be sending shit from Japan to us. So they were trying to get one into Moscow, then send it, import it into North Korea because it's a whole thing. But eventually the crew were so desperate to get out of there. The two pilots and the additional crew member, they found a car battery, used a local compressed air cylinder and kickstarted the plane's battery themselves. They're like, we got to get out of here. Wait, so they left all three, four of them they left? Yes. Wow. They flew back to Japan. Their coming home was a huge deal. It was seen as a very positive thing.

59:01And in the minds of most Japanese people in the world, the hijacking situation was over. You know, news cycles are moving on. There's really nothing more to the story. The Japanese government did try to extradite and are still trying to extradite the hijackers out of North Korea. But North Korea would reject all of their requests. And they would very richly say, we just don't think it's humane what Japan might do to the hijackers. So we're going to keep them here. We are protecting them from their own government. Do we know if the nine people are still alive or? A few of them are dead. A few of them are dead.

59:38But some are still alive. Yes, and still living in North Korea. Crazy. Yes. There had been an influx of missing women in Japan. And there were rumors about this, but nobody could really confirm it. These missing women all had a few things in common. They were all unmarried, without children, and they all, to a degree, either sympathized with North Korean ideologies or believed in it. They were all part of groups or social clubs that read the teachings of Kim Il-sung, and they all vanished on an overseas trip to Europe. Just vanished, without a trace. They left nothing behind, not even a single suitcase, not a single item of clothing.

1:00:15Just disappeared. weird. Coincidentally, around the time during a press conference, Kimi-sung was asked about the hijackers that are still in North Korea. This is like years after the hijacking. Nobody's heard from the hijackers. They've made no contact with the world. Obviously, people have questions. Are they still alive? What's going on? Why aren't you letting them go back to Japan? How long are you going to keep them? Do they even want to stay here? What are they doing? Where are they living? But of course, they can't ask any of that. Instead, they just try to bring up some of the hijackers and Kimi-sung without any sort of prompting just response.

1:00:47The hijackers say they wish to return to Japan, but if they do, they would have to stand trial. In Korea, we have a saying, after 10 years, even rivers and mountains change. I think their feelings might have changed too. In many ways, they're married now to Japanese women and with children. It's been a long time, so I would say to Japan, please consider dropping all the charges against them. The headlines all over Japan would read, Missing women are wives of hijackers. Wait, what? Oh yeah, we'll get there. It is speculated that Kimi Sung held a secret operation called Operation Marriage, where North Korean operatives allegedly kidnapped Japanese women and forced them to get married to the hijackers in one massive wedding ceremony of nine couples.

1:01:33He lets them live in this massive gated compound called Little Japan, but soon they would later call it the Village of Revolution. because the part that's fascinating is why would Kim Lee Sung care at all about whether these men get married or not or care about these men at all in general? One of the guy writes in his diary, there are probably people who are angry that we got married, but I think men ought to marry. Men and women too should get married. If you're engaged with something that gets in the way of you're getting married, I think you'll eventually lose interest in it. Wait, what is he talking about?

1:02:04Isn't he just being held captive in North Korea? So at this point, within a few years of being in North Korea, whether it was out of necessity or pure interest or both, the hijackers start turning their interest into North Korea. Their revolution was no longer about Japan. It was about uniting North and South Korea under Kim Il-sung's rule. And since that moment, the hijackers are moved from the hotel to their own little village. They go through a series of indoctrinations, brainwashing sessions, where they unlearn everything that had to do with their revolution and reprogram their minds with the teachings of Kim Il-sung.

1:02:39The first that they had to learn was, this is not like every other revolutionary meeting that you've been to in the past, okay? There is no room for interpretation here. Either you agree or you disagree. There is no half agreeing. Either your life is in danger or you're safe. There's no middle ground where you're like, kind of skirting the edge of danger. And now their new mission is, yes, hold a revolution in Japan where Kim Il-sung will take over, but also in South Korea and other parts of Europe. Kim Il-sung should honestly rule the world. Their whole point was to make sure North Korea has supporters all over the world.

1:03:18They can't do this if they're the only ones, like nine people. They're not going to change the world's views. They need to go into different countries, hold seminars, find groups of people that sympathize with the North and like have this whole organization put together where they can all support Kim Il-sung's goals. And slowly they can start bringing in more and more countries. Kim Il-sung obviously agrees with their new vision because it's his vision, but believes that they need to have a family to really throw themselves into their revolutionary work. There's a few reasons for this. One, it said that after Konishi Takahiro's girlfriend, she's the one with the clairvoyant.

1:03:56She moves from Japan to Beijing. Beijing, because they have a North Korean embassy. She begs North Korean embassies. Please let me go to North Korea. Please. I want to go to North Korea so bad. Please let me go. They're like, okay, fine. Go to North Korea. Willingly went there. Yes. Once she's allowed into North Korea, she and Konishi Takahiro start their own little group within the group. You know, they're the only ones that are coupled up and it starts creating this very strange dynamic amongst the hostage takers. They felt like it was just them. They were in this together as revolutionaries.

1:04:28why does he get to have emotional comfort and physical attention? And two, this is terrifying and it's not further expanded upon any source I could find, even this like 420 page book that I read on it. But it said that the men tried to engage in highly inappropriate sexual acts with the North Korean women that were staffed to work for them in this gated compound. Yeah, so I feel like that's putting it lightly. This seems like the biggest trigger for the North Korean party to get involved. And lastly, three, within a year of getting married, almost all of them have children. And that is how the group are allowed to leave North Korea to find more revolutionaries around the world to join them.

1:05:07Kim Lee-sung envisioned that the hijackers would go to Europe, all over Asia, find like-minded people and convince them. And they would have covert operatives across the world working for him, building their own teams of revolutionaries that are going to help Kim Lee-sung take over their countries. But that means the hijackers would have to leave North Korea for these operations. but what's the insurance plan how can kim be so certain that they're going to come back their wives aren't going to do it these wives are just like random kidnapped woman from japan other than kunishi's girlfriend what is the emotional attachment there that's why they have kids you keep the kid in north korea send the parents abroad and north korea is known for doing that and it worked because remember that guy in cambodia one of the hijackers it's alleged obviously everything's alleged because North Korea doesn't confirm anything but it's alleged that he was working with North Korea on the counterfeiting schemes it's unclear exactly what the hijackers did for North Korea after landing there some speculate they were all assigned different roles we do know that one was arrested like I said for spreading the counterfeit US super notes in Southeast Asia it's speculated that they were all working as North Korean operatives the hijackers and even their wives, there are allegations that whenever the members of the group would be in Europe, Japanese nationals would go missing on their trips in Europe.

1:06:31They're kidnapping people? Yes. Why? To turn them into like a... And this all comes full circle, but to turn them into basically... So I'm assuming the Japanese nationals that they kidnapped had some sort of sympathy for North Korea. So they're bringing them into North Korea to brainwash them further and create more operatives. to send out and the Japanese passport is stronger like you you're not going to get into all the countries on a North Korean passport even if it's a diplomacy passport right right right so they want more Japanese yes so that's why the wives for the hijackers first of all they can't marry North Korean women because um it's highly illegal for North Koreans to marry anyone that's not North Korean because they believe in race purity yeah or like I guess national purity in this case so they brought in Japanese wives but also what they would do is they would send the Japanese wives with a North Korean diplomat passport out into these different countries mainly Europe and then once they get into Europe they start using their Japanese passport to get into other countries and to move around because I highly doubt yeah right right right okay I see yes so they wanted a lot of different passports involved in this whole situation is what I'm getting out of this.

1:07:49Now, North Korea did admit to kidnapping Japanese people. And even if you look at the one where North Korea kidnapped a South Korean actress, you'll see that she's in a compound just like this. And she meets a Japanese woman at one point. She like meets a Chinese woman at one point. There's just a lot of different nationals there. So yeah. As of 2004, the hijackers have requested permission from North Korea to return back to Japan. And there are mixed feelings about this. So the hijackers do genuinely seem like they want to go back to Japan. And Kim Il-sung is long dead. Oh, well, he is dead, right?

1:08:26But Kim Jong-un, his grandson has taken over. And I don't think that he sees as much value in them. But I think he just keeps them around because he doesn't want to give them back to Japan. Now, there are other theories, though, that the hijackers are begging to go back to Japan under the disguise of like, oh, we miss our home country, but they're going to try and start some stuff there. Wait, so right now they wanted to leave, but they're not allowed to leave. Yeah, North Korea won't let them leave. So far, there's no real answers. The vice minister of transport, the one that exchanged his life for the passengers, he was actually scheduled to fly into Pyongyang, I would say maybe like a decade ago, for negotiations to swap the hijackers or to get them back.

1:09:10but coincidentally the day before he was scheduled to leave his daughter suffered from a psychotic break and stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife wait wait wait wait his daughter killed him yeah she had a psychotic break what yeah but he prior to this his career was flourishing i mean when he got back he was the hostage official i mean he put his money where his mouth is he's like i'm for the people and people how can you aren't argue with that he did save his you know exchange his life for the people wow but he is dead yeah as of right now yoshimi tanaka one of the hijackers was arrested in thailand for distributing super notes counterfeit u.s currency he was extradited to japan where he died of liver cancer in 2007 in prison takeshi okamado is suspected to be dead it's suspected that he actually attempted to flee north korea on a boat kintaro yoshida is also suspected to have denied the teachings of north korea and was allegedly suspected of being sent to a prison camp where he likely died how do we know all this information about their stay the book that i read the author actually did multiple visits to north korea obviously with north korea's permission and he was interviewing the hijackers so it's suspected it was part of north korea's plan to make the hijackers not seem like they're all part of Kimi Sung's little group and make them seem like, oh, North Korea is just a nice place.

1:10:41We like living here so that more people would accept their teachings if they were to go abroad. Tamiya Takamaru, the leader of the group, the original leader of the group, was said to have died from a mysterious illness in North Korea. Also allegedly suspicious. Yashiro Shibata, he's the youngest member of the group. The hijacking happened when he was only 16. He actually went to Japan to recruit people to North Korea, but he was arrested for forging a passport. He went under a fake passport. After his sentence, he stayed in Japan until he died in 2011. Takahiro Konishi is currently still living in North Korea.

1:11:17He is internationally wanted. It is alleged that he has taken over as the leader of the group. Abe Kimihiro is currently still in North Korea as well. He is wanted by Interpol for kidnapping Japanese people. Wakabayashi Moriaki also lives in North Korea as well. Shira Akagi also lives in North Korea. And if and when the remaining wives get back, they're facing 10 months in prison, while the husbands will probably face more than 10 years in prison for their crimes. They will be facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, international kidnapping, theft of an airplane, and the crime of taking hostages.

1:11:51Back then, there was no crime of airplane hijacking so they couldn't be charged with that all of the children however of the hijackers have returned to japan well i guess it's not returned but they now live in japan how did that happen yeah i guess north korea was like yeah just go i think it became too many people wow yeah the interesting thing to note though is the hijackers went through all of this because their whole belief the reason that they even hijacked the plane to begin with was one of it was based on having a classless society where wealth and resources were distributed very equally but they were and are living the lives of the 0.01 percent in North Korea they are literally the richest of the rich in North Korea and it does not seem like they have a problem with class disparity anymore as long as they're part of the group that gets to live comfortably wow so so much for their vision yeah what are your thoughts on this case i'm just like just feels unreal i did not yeah and who what yeah i don't even know what to say to this one and the fact that they're still living in north korea is crazy see this is what i say you get what you ask for and i feel like they probably have a lot of regrets on that one yeah yeah i I feel like if they really come out and share what happened in the last 20, 30 years.

1:13:19Oh my gosh. I don't think we're ready for that. That would be. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we're touching like the surface of the surface of what truly went down. I imagine North Korea is not going to let them go for that reason. Right. And I imagine the kids can't say anything because their parents are still in North Korea. It's fascinating. What are your thoughts? Wow. But please stay safe and I will see you guys in the next one