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A scene from downtown Pyongyang
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Speculations abound regarding reasons for abrupt release
North Korea’s sudden release of a Japanese tourist who had been detained for about two weeks is prompting speculation about the reasons for the release. “Tomoyuki Sugimoto, a Japanese tourist to North Korea, was recently apprehended and questioned by the relevant agency after committing a crime against North Korea’s laws. The relevant agency has resolved to generously forgive this Japanese tourist according to humanitarian principles and to deport him outside our borders,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Aug. 26. The KCNA did not specifically mention what crime this Japanese individual had committed. On Aug. 27, Kyodo News quoted Japanese diplomatic sources as having received intelligence that the Japanese man had already been released and arrived in China on his way home. On Aug. 12, the Japanese press had previously reported that the detained man was a 39-year-old “video creator” who may have been apprehended while taking photographs in Nampo, the site of a North Korean naval base. The man was presumably taken into custody by the North Korean authorities on Aug. 10. The decision to release him was made about two weeks after his apprehension. This release came with unusual speed given the precedent of Takashi Sugishima, a reporter for a Japanese daily called the Nihon Keizai Shimbun who was detained in North Korea on espionage charges in 1999 and was released after two years behind bars. The Japanese government thought that North Korea might use this Japanese man as a bargaining chip in future negotiations between the two countries. “With North Korea-Japan relations in a stalemate, North Korea’s apparent goal was to create the impression of being considerate to Japan and leave open the possibility for resuming dialogue with Japan,” Kyodo News said. By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
