The Investigation Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea says it is examining the voice patterns of a North Korean state radio announcer and the parents of a man who went missing off Tottori Prefecture in 1988, after a report that a man in a photograph taken in March in Pyongyang resembles the Japanese man. The man in the photograph is believed to be Sin Bom, an announcer for the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee.
The commission earlier asked Masatsugu Hashimoto, professor of forensic anthropology at Tokyo Dental College, to examine photographs of the man and Tomiyasu Yakura of Yonago in the prefecture who went missing after he went fishing in 1988, when he was 36. The professor said it is highly likely that the man in the picture and Yakura are the same person.
The commission then asked an acoustic engineer to examine the voice patterns of Yakura’s parents and that of Sin speaking on a shortwave radio programme that is aired for listeners in Japan. The result of the voice pattern examination is due later this month.
According to the commission, Sin hosts the “Voice of Korea” Japanese-language radio program. Sources say that Sin starting hosting the program in about 1988.
The photograph of the man who resembles Yakura was taken by a member of a Japan-North Korea friendship organization when its members met with committee officials in a Pyongyang hotel on March 15. The man introduced himself as Sin Bom, an announcer. The photographic examination does not guarantee that they are the same person.
In a previous case, a man and woman in a photograph taken in North Korea had a close resemblance to missing Japanese nationals but were eventually found out to be different people.
(Source: Daily Yomiuru Online/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)