Japan Airlines Flight 351 was hijacked by nine members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction (a predecessor of the Japanese Red Army) on March 31, 1970, while flying from Tokyo to Fukuoka, in an incident usually referred to in Japanese as the Yodogo Hijacking (よど号ハイジャック事件, Yodogō Haijakku Jiken?). The hijackers took 129 hostages (122 passengers and seven crew members), later releasing them at Fukuoka Airport and Seoul's Kimpo Airport. They then proceeded to Pyongyang's Mirim Airport, where they surrendered to North Korean authorities, who offered the whole group asylum. Yoshimi Tanaka was arrested in Thailand and repatriated to Japan in March 2000. However, the other hijackers remain at large, according to Japan's National Police Agency. The leader of the group, Takamaro Tamiya died in 1995 and Yoshida Kintaro before 1985. Takeshi Okamoto and his wife Fukudome Kimiko were probably killed trying to flee North Korea. Takahiro Konishi, Shiro Akagi, Kimihuro Uomoto, Moriaki Wakabayashi still reside in North Korea; all except Takeshi Okamoto were confirmed to have been alive as of 2004 when they were interviewed by Kyodo News. In June 2004, the remaining hijackers made a request to North Korean authorities that they be allowed to return to Japan.
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