North Korea kidnapped Mr. Choi and Mr. Lee. This information was discovered during an interrogation process of North Korean spy agents in 1997.3 (f) * State or State-supported forces believed to be responsible for the disappearance. If the perpetrators are believed to be State agents, please specify and indicate who and why they are believed to be responsible. Be as precise as possible (military, police, persons in uniform or civilian clothes, agents of security services, unit to which they belong, rank and functions, identifications presented, etc.)… North Korea is responsible for the disappearances of these two high school students, as demonstrated in the responses above and below. (g) If identification as State agents is not possible, please indicate why you believe that Government authorities, or persons linked to them, may be responsible for the incident N/A (h) If there are witnesses to the incident, please provide their names and relation to the victim. If they wish to remain anonymous, indicate if they are relatives, by-standers, or others. If there is evidence, please specify. N/A (i) Additional Information on the case. Please indicate any other relevant information that could be useful to find the person In 1997, South Korea’s Agency for National Security Planning (NSP) found out for the first time that Mr. Choi had, in fact, been abducted to North Korea. Previously, Mr. Choi had been believed to have disappeared within South Korea. NSP made this discovery after investigating several North Korean agents who had been caught in South Korea. After seeing photos of Mr. Choi, they confirmed that they had seen him over the years in Pyongyang. Mr. Choi, presumably because of his youth and South Korean heritage, had been selected to train future North Korean spies. He worked in the suburbs of Pyongyang, where the government had built sets imitating South Korean shops for simulation purposes. Mr. Choi was identified as having been a teacher in a South Korea-style clothes and sports retail shop. For two decades, the parents of Mr. Seung-min Choi believed that their son was still in South Korea and traveled across the country looking for him. After NSP’s interrogation of several North Korean espionage agents revealed that they had abducted young South Koreans, the agency called to ask the families for photos of their disappeared sons. When the photos were shown to the North Korean agents, more than one agent confirmed that Mr. Choi and Mr. Lee were both living in Pyongyang and had been recruited to teach North Koreans in espionage training. 3 Korea Institute for National Unification. (2012). White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2012. Seoul, Korea: Kim, K., Chon, H., Lee, K., Lim, S., Lee, K., & Hong, W. 5