SEOUL – Award-winning filmmaker Yang Yonghi was just six years old when she watched her eldest brother leave Japan for North Korea as one of 200 “human gifts” for leader Kim Il Sung’s 60th birthday.
As a North Korean anthem blared, through bursts of confetti, he handed her a note before his ferry departed Niigata port: “Yonghi, listen to a lot of music. Watch as many movies as you want.”
It was 1972, a year after her parents — members of the ethnic Korean “Zainichi” community in Japan — had sent their other two sons the same way, lured by the Kim regime’s promise of a socialist paradise with free education, healthcare and jobs for all.
The boys never moved back.
“My parents dedicated their…
