33 Years On, Hopes For Anocha Revive

[Flashermac]

The coming to power of new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has revitalised Thai hopes in the search for Anocha Panjoi, a Chiang Mai woman who was allegedly abducted by North Korean soldiers 33 years ago.

 

The case stalled during the reign of Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, who died last Saturday.

 

A Foreign Ministry source said the Anocha case is still on the agenda for discussions with the North Korean government but admitted that setting up a joint working team was difficult because North Korea is such an insular country.

 

North Korea has always denied the abduction whenever the ministry has made inquiries about the investigation's progress through Pyongyang's embassy in Bangkok, the source said.

 

"We probably have to wait for the new government to settle before raising this issue, because we don't know what North Korea will be like after the death of Kim Jong-il," the source said.

 

But Pyongyang's repeated denials of involvement in the abduction has not quashed the hopes of Mrs Anocha's family that one day she will be found.

 

Her nephew, Banjong Panjoi, said his family was "70%" confident his aunt is still alive after he met Robert Jenkins, a member of the US military who has lived in North Korea.

 

Mr Banjong said his father, Mrs Anocha's brother, would like to see her before he dies. He is now 65 and suffers from a blood infection which impairs his hearing.

 

"My father hopes to see Anocha and always asks me when she will return," said Mr Banjong.

 

With help from the Association for the Rescue of North Korean Abductees (Arnka) in Chiang Mai, Mr Banjong arranged to meet Mr Jenkins in 2005 in Japan.

 

Mr Jenkins and his Japanese wife are the last ones who saw Mrs Anocha alive. The last time they met her was 1989.

 

"I took with me an album of more than 50 pictures of Anocha which she had taken with her friends before she disappeared," said Mr Banjong.

 

"[Mr Jenkins' wife] Hitomi could correctly identify Anocha in the pictures, although there were several women in them. This gives me confidence that my aunt is still alive."

 

Anocha, then 23, was abducted from Macau in 1978 while working there. Mr Banjong was seven years old at the time.

 

He was told by Mr Jenkins that Mrs Anocha was his neighbour for nine years from 1980 to 1989 when they lived just outside the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Mr Jenkins says Mrs Anocha was married to his US friend.

 

After Mrs Anocha's first husband died, she was introduced to a German businessman in 1989, which was the last year the couple saw her.

 

"Anocha had a comfortable life without children but helped Mr Jenkins raise his child," Mr Banjong quoted him as saying.

 

Mr Jenkins heard the name of Mrs Anocha again eight years ago as North Korean officials suggested he marry Mrs Anocha in exchange for staying in the country.

 

Mr Jenkins wrote a book about his 39 years in North Korea and Mrs Anocha was mentioned in the book.

 

He concluded Mrs Anocha had been abducted by North Korea to marry a foreigner there and to teach Thai language.

 

Some suspected the German businessman to whom Mrs Anocha was married was a spy for North Korea as he travelled in and out of the country easily and regularly.

 

The Panjoi family believed Mrs Anocha could be under house arrest and she might not dare to flee the country despite her desire to go back to Thailand.

 

The talks between the family and Mr Jenkins in 2005 came too late for Mrs Anocha's father, who died at the age of 97, two months before the meeting.

 

Mr Banjong said Mrs Anocha's father turned in on himself after his daughter disappeared. Once a man who loved socialising, he rarely left the house afterwards.

 

"Everyone felt terrible that my grandpa died not knowing what happened to Anocha," said Mr Banjong.

 

In addition to attempts to renew a search for Mrs Anocha by the Foreign Ministry, the Arnka will press the Thai government to take up this case seriously.

 

As both Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul are also natives of Chiang Mai, the association hoped the government will pursue this matter, Arnka founder Tomoharu Ebihara said.

 

The association will submit this issue to a cabinet meeting which will be held in Chiang Mai next month.

 

Mr Ebihara said the Thaksin Shinawatra government initiated talks with the North Korean government in 2005 and proposed to set up a joint working team to search for Mrs Anocha but political problems in Thailand hampered progress.

 

"The North Korean government ignored this issue following the political turbulence in Thailand," he said.

 

Mr Ebihara said the government should take advantage of the transition period in North Korea to urge its new leader to pay attention to the Anocha case.

 

 

 

 

My link

[JAYBLOOM]

I find it amazing that North Korea has been able to get away with these kidnappings for all these years. Do you think that the Chinese and the Soviets have done the same. Do you think that we've (America) done such things?

http://www.sukuukai.jp/narkn/

[Flashermac]

 I doubt it since there was no particular need for the US to do so. There were plenty of folks willing to come to the US and work for the government. Not much need for the Soviets or Red Chinese either, since they always had a few western defectors heading their way (e.g. Lee Oswald). North Korea isolated itself from the beginning, and it's leaders have always been paranoid. 

[kamui]

I find it amazing that North Korea has been able to get away with these kidnappings for all these years. Do you think that the Chinese and the Soviets have done the same. Do you think that we've (America) done such things?

http://www.sukuukai.jp/narkn/

 

I think at the end of WWII the USSR relocated (abducted) German scientists for military programs. The USA did the same, but of course it was much better to be forced to go the USA than to Siberia...

[Flashermac]

The French used tens of thousands of German prisoners as slave laborers for years after the war. I remember my father talking about his disgust at seeing it - trains packed with POWs heading east to France. He said, "I thought that was what we were fighting to stop."

 

If you read von Braun's autobiography, you'll find he talks about how determined the Peenemunde rocket scientists were to surrender to the Americans instead of the Russkies. They began working for the US Army at Fort Bliss, in west Texas, but after a few years were shifted to Huntsville, Alabama (at today's Marshall Space Flight Center). They were delighted by the nearby mountains, which reminded them of the Alps, and they made their homes there the rest of their lives. I know the children of several of them, and the Von Braun Civic Center is one of the city's important buildings.

[Julian2]

I wonder if the family of a girl who went overseas to work in the P4P scene and disappeared would get the same amount of publicity, or would the story be a bit too mundane compared with a North Korean kidnapping?

[Flashermac]

Not likely since she more or less got herself into it. I've seen plenty of news reports over the years about Thai women who went overseas to work as waitresses, au pairs etc and were forced into prostitution. Some of them disappeared too. But hookers who get themselves into trouble don't seem to get much sympathy from most Thais. 

[Julian2]

My mate had a girlfriend who disappeared in Japan, she was in the massage scene here so I suppose she knew what she was getting into.

Still just as gone though.