[imText1]Yanji, China — From the end of last year, there have been many incidents in Hyesan, Yangkang Province about young women in their 20s and 30s being kidnapped and murdered so the National Security Agency has initiated investigations but no substantial evidence has been found.

According to a source from North Korea on the 8th, Shim Kyung Il, a director of the preliminary examination office of the Yangkang Province Security Agency, reported in the provincial secretarial meeting that appropriate investigations have been held following the continuous occurrences of the young women’s “kidnapping from human trafficking on from last month.

Other source also reported “From last December, during the past month 7 women have disappeared”. The missing women are known to be women in their 20s and 30s that live in the vicinity of Hyesan.

It was also shocking to hear that from last October, three women who had come from different areas as merchants were murdered in Yangkang Province. Because these women were “wandering merchants” they carried a lot of cash and thus the NSA assumed they were subject to such crimes.

The continuous disappearance of women that occur now started happening in the middle of last November and there have been 9 reported cases thus far.

Seven women in Hyesan of Yangkang Province and one woman each in the nearby county of Daeohcheon, Woonheung and Bocheon were found missing.

In the beginning of such occurrences, the residents started to wonder if they had escaped to China. However, there was no reason to escape to China and with the continuous disappearances, news spread quickly that this was a kidnapping from human traffickers.

The source explained that the reason the residents place emphasis on the kidnapping is because the women who disappeared were all between the ages of 14 and early 30s and there were women from rich families.

As the people started to speak out about the kidnappings of these women, the authorities held People’s Unit meetings and asked that women do not go around alone in isolated areas late at night.

Defectors state that unless the traffickers bribe the border guards, it is realistically impossible to sell young women to China. Thus in the case that women were kidnapped to China, there is a high possibility that the border guards were involved.

Among people, there are even rumors that the kidnapping incidents are because of the Chinese Olympics. The news sources reported that, “There is a widespread rumor that the Chinese are taking North Korean women as sexual objects in order to make money off of foreigners during the Olympics.”

It’s not reportedly even certain if it’s a kidnapping from human traffickers or a continuous murder case.

In Yangkang Province, in the winter, the snow doesn’t melt and piles up on the side of the road. As December passes, there are big piles of snow that appear nearby. As these piles of snow melt in the spring, there are cases now and then where bodies are found. Thus, the possibility cannot be removed that these people suffered from crimes other than kidnapping.

Lee, a defector from Yangkang Province said, “At the end of March 2004 in Yeonpoon-dong, Hyesan, in the road to go to Hwajeon-ri in Bocheon, three bodies were found in the snow.”