Abductee may have been executed after tutoring plane bomber

Yaeko Taguchi, one of the Japanese abductees whom Pyongyang admitted died in North Korea, may have been executed after serving her purpose as a language instructor for the female agent who blew a Korean Air jetliner out of the sky in 1987, relatives said Friday.

The relatives learned Thursday from the government that North Korea informed Japan during the historic summit Tuesday between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that Taguchi died July 30, 1986, a little over a year before the bomb was planted on the South Korean jet.

Taguchi, a Tokyo club hostess and native of Saitama Prefecture, is believed to have taught Japanese to confessed North Korean agent Kim Hyon Hui, who was tried by Seoul, sentenced to die and then later had her sentence commuted.