Saving Anocha: A Thai lady abducted by North Korea

Finally, I met Jenkins last Friday in a hotel at Sado Island, Japan, not far from his home in this well-known resort. He looked plumper than his photo on the cover of his book. He also was jollier than I anticipated. Journalist friends who had met him said he could get easily irritated by questions. I found him very friendly. We had one hour to talk exclusively about Anocha, whom he first met in Pyongyang in early 1983. At least three times during the conversation, Jenkins could not hold back his tears when he talked about the Thai woman. Anocha was kidnapped so she could be married off as a wife to foreigners in North Korea and to teach the Thai language to North Korean secret agents, he said. They lived next door to each other from 1984-89. He said Anocha was like a second mother to his family because she helped him and his wife, Hitomi Soga - a Japanese kidnap victim - raise their two children. When Hitomi was hospitalised, Anocha would come to his house and play with the two daughters and cook for them. After Anocha's first husband, Larry Allen Abshier, died in 1983, Jenkins said she became lonely and from time to time turned to drink.

In April 1989 Anocha was taken away from her apartment to an unknown location. In September of the same year, Jenkins and Hitomi saw Anocha by accident in Pyongyang; she was having a hair cut, preparing for her wedding the next day to a German who worked for the North Korean government's foreign procurement office.

Following the initial reports in the Thai media, former foreign minister Kantathi Suphamongkul raised the issue for the first time in late November 2005 with the North Korean Embassy in Bangkok, and followed up with several enquiries to Macau and Japan for additional information. Pyongyang immediately dismissed the story about her abduction, as told by Jenkins, saying that no such woman existed in North Korea. Early in 2006 the Foreign Ministry dispatched diplomats to meet with Jenkins and sought briefings from the Japanese government in an effort to determine Anocha's whereabouts.

In 2006, Kantathi made a proposal to Pyongyang that both governments set up a joint committee to investigate the allegations once and for all. But there was no response from Pyongyang. Since then, successive Thai governments have not paid any attention to the abduction issue. Interestingly, this idea of joint investigation committees was agreed to by Japan and North Korea in August, just a month before the resignation of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Tokyo would loosen its sanctions on the regime if there was progress on the establishment of this committee. But Pyongyang had second thoughts and has become recalcitrant, blaming the unclear position of newly elected Prime Minister Aso Taro, despite his reaffirmation of his predecessor's policy on the abductions.

According to Prof Tsutomu Nishioka, vice chairman of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN), the setback came when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had reportedly suffered a stroke, and was not able to proceed with the agreement. He said Kim was behind the agreement because he wanted foreign food assistance.

Japan has been eager to follow up on the proposed joint commission, to investigate 12 other Japanese abducted by North Korea - the number recognised by the Japanese government. NARKN, which closely follows the abduction cases, puts the number much higher at 100. The abduction issue has become a national obsession since Kim Jong-il admitted to the visiting Japanese former prime minister Juniichi Koizumi in Pyongyang ,in September 2002, that North Korean agents did abduct Japanese citizens, and agreed to return five of them. As part of the deal, Japan would ease sanctions and provide humanitarian aid.

Before Kim's confession, Pyongyang persistently denied the abductions. Japanese governments have been in an awkward position about disclosing information to the public, fearing it could endanger the lives of abductees. At the same time, they did not want to alert Pyongyang that Tokyo knew about the abductions. According to police in Niigata, where five Japanese citizens were abducted in the late 1970s, there is a 55-member investigation team working full time, following every lead on the abductees.

Such is the case of Megumi Yokota, kidnapped at the age of 13 on November 15, 1977 in Niigata. In 2002, North Korea admitted that Megumi was kidnapped, but later claimed that she had died. In 2004, during Koizumi's second visit to Pyongyang, Megumi's remains were handed to Japanese authorities. After forensic tests, the results did not match the victim's known DNA. The remains from North Korea belonged to two unknown persons.

"North Korea lied about my daughter," said Shigeru Yokota, Megumi's father. "If she died as North Korea insists, where is the evidence." Shigeru and his wife, Sakie, are tireless campaigners who have travelled to every corner of Japan to educate the public on abduction issues. They have made more than 1,000 speeches in the past two decades in all 47 prefectures of Japan.

Before the North Korean confession in 2002, families dared not reveal identities of abductees for fears for their safety. Now they are open and campaign together and provide moral support to each other. The rapport has expanded to include other countries such as Thailand and Romania which have had their citizens abducted by North Korea. Victims who have returned from North Korea say that there are other abductees from China, Malaysia, Singapore, and France, according to Nishioka.

In Anocha's case, she was sighted and photos were taken. In his book, "Confession", Jenkins published a photo taken in Wongsan, North Korea, in August 1984, which showed Anocha sitting on the beach with Abshier's daughter.

"The North Koreans told the Thais that this photo could have been taken at any beach in the world," Jenkins said. He said the photo was taken in North Korea, which he had never left until 2004. When asked if he had additional photos of Anocha, he said, "Yes, plenty." But those photos were kept by his wife Hitomi and subsequently seized by the North Korean authorities before she was able to leave Pyongyang and join him in Japan. "Those photos clearly show Anocha living in Pyongyang," he added.

Today Jenkins works in the souvenir shop at the Museum of Legend and History on Sado Island. He lives with his wife and two daughters. He is also the "Rice Ambassador" for Niigata - famous for its short-grain rice. His job is to promote Sado Island rice throughout Japan. He travels frequently throughout Japan to speak on his experiences and highlight the plight of abduction victims and their families.

Jenkins met with Anocha's brother, Sukham Panchoy, and nephew, Banchong, last year to offer his support for the family in the hope that one day Anocha will be able to return home to Chiang Mai.