The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project

Throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, dozens of Japanese citizens were abducted from coastal Japanese towns by North Korean commandos. In what proved to be part of a global project, North Korea attempted to reeducate the abductees and train them to spy on the state's behalf. When the project faltered, the abductees were hidden in a series of guarded communities known as "Invitation-Only Zones"—the fiction being that these were exclusive enclaves, not prisons.

In 2002, Kim Jong Il ad…