Shy, retiring Kazumi Kitagawa appears in "Friday" in 2003. And at a press conference in Niigata on Thursday
Sydney Morning Herald in 2003: Cult saga of sex, spies and defection
And now......The defection of leftist terrorists to a communist state is one thing. What everyone in Japan has been asking since news of her defection broke late last month is why Ms Kitagawa, a nightclub worker from Osaka, did the same...[F]ar from being an anonymous club worker, Ms Kitagawa turns out to be involved in one of the most loathed religious cults in Japan, espionage, and of course, sex...[A]n Aleph spokesman, Hiroshi Araki, revealed she had been acting as a mole inside the cult, working for Japan's Public Safety Investigation Agency, the country's equivalent of the FBI...Ms Kitagawa was reportedly involved in a sexual relationship with an inspector with the intelligence agency. Whether it was forced or consensual is unclear...She apparently considered going public with her story that she was forced to spy on Aum and, in February, had photographs taken by the weekly magazine Friday. The recently published photos include topless shots, with Ms Kitagawa covering her breasts. "Don't you think my nude photos would give a more powerful impact to my accusation?" Friday quoted her as saying. But her dream of a new life in a socialist nirvana seems to have evaporated. This month it was reported that in her letters to her boss at the Osaka nightclub she talked about her life in the hotel room, saying she wanted to return to Japan
MDN: Returned defector apologizes for being a 'nuisance'
A woman who returned to Japan Thursday after defecting to North Korea two years ago apologized for creating a nuisance. Kazumi Kitagawa, 31, made the apology at a news conference she gave in a Niigata hotel shortly after arriving back in her homeland following her bizarre defection in 2003.
