Supporters report Shiro Akagi's death in North Korea — The Japan Times
In North Korea, 78-year-old Shiro Akagi, a member of the group that hijacked a Japan Airlines Yodo aircraft in 1970, may have died, according to supporters. Japanese police have received this information and are verifying the fact of his death, The Japan Times reports.
Report of death
Akagi's supporters claim that he died of heart failure at a hospital in Pyongyang on Saturday. According to them, they received this information from sources in North Korea.
Akagi was repeatedly hospitalized due to a chronic illness. He was internationally wanted and lived in a suburb of Pyongyang with five other people, including other participants in the aircraft hijacking.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Among those living there, a source names 78-year-old Kimihiro Uomoto, as well as the wife of the late Takamaro Tamiya, the former leader of the Japanese Red Army.
The 1970 aircraft hijacking
In March 1970, Tamiya, Akagi and seven other people, armed, among other things, with Japanese swords, hijacked a Japan Airlines aircraft flying from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Fukuoka. There were 129 passengers and crew members on board in total.
After releasing the passengers and crew at airports in Fukuoka and Gimpo in Seoul, the hijackers flew to North Korea aboard the Yodo aircraft.
