Investigation records by the Japanese police related to the 1973 kidnapping incident of former President Kim Dae-jung at a hotel in Tokyo have been disclosed. The documents contain details on how the kidnappers were identified and the investigation into the location where former President Kim was taken after the abduction.
On the 25th, Asahi Shimbun obtained and released materials from the Japanese police to mark the 50th anniversary of the kidnapping incident involving former President Kim.
Former President Kim Dae-jung is giving a speech to citizens at Mokpo Station Square on October 28, 2006. Photo by Kim Jin-su gomoosin@
This 13-page document was prepared by the Foreign Affairs Division of the Japanese police on February 2, 1998. It bears the stamp 'Secret (indefinite) - Destroy after use.'
The document includes details on how one of the kidnappers was identified as Kim Dong-woon, a First Secretary dispatched from the Central Intelligence Agency (now the National Intelligence Service) to the Korean Embassy in Japan.
On August 8, 1973, Kim Dae-jung, who was an opposition leader engaged in anti-authoritarian activities, was kidnapped by a Central Intelligence Agency agent from a room on the 22nd floor of the Grand Palace Hotel in Tokyo and was released near his home in Donggyo-dong, Seoul, on August 13. According to the document, a hotel guest who witnessed the kidnapping testified to the police that "two people got off the elevator on the 3rd floor of the hotel, and one man asked for help saying, 'Help me, murderer.'"
The investigation results regarding a backpack left at the scene by the perpetrator are also included. The backpack was identified as being sold by a mountaineering equipment manufacturing and sales company, and the investigation revealed that three backpacks were sold to two men two days before the incident. A clerk who saw the photos presented by the police testified that one of the buyers resembled Kim Dong-woon.
The document also records the investigation into the location where former President Kim was taken after the kidnapping. In a statement sent to the Japanese police, former President Kim said, "After asking for directions on the highway, we drove for an hour and went to a house in An. I was taken to a tatami room." Based on this, the Japanese police investigated apartments with the surname An and equipped with elevators in the Kansai region but were unable to identify the exact location.
Additionally, a document titled 'Status of summons requests for Kim Dong-woon' states that in September 1973, the Japanese National Police Agency requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to directly investigate Secretary Kim, but Korea responded that it would not comply.
Regarding this information disclosure, the Japanese National Police Agency stated that the documents were not declassified but that the amount of disclosed information was increased based on previous parliamentary responses and subsequent investigation results.
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