One of the biggest news stories of 1987 was the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight over the Indian Ocean. Two North Korean agents posing as Japanese citizens were believed to be responsible for the bombing. One committed suicide before he could be arrested in Bahrain. The other, a young woman named Kim Hyong He, tried to do the same but was revived, put on trial, and sentenced to death. Two months later, she was pardoned and now is a housewife in South Korea.
Over the years, some people have questioned aspects of the case, including the summary pardon itself. On March 23 at 8 p.m., TV Asahi will present a "Kinkyu Kensho Special (Urgent Verification Special)" detailing ideas presented in a South Korean novel that has prompted families of victims to ask the government to reopen the investigation. The accepted theory was that the North carried out the bombing to make the world uneasy about the upcoming Seoul Olympics, but in the novel the bombing was the work of South Korean intelligence officers who wanted to bolster claims that Pyongyang was a terrorist regime.
Feature-length movies based on animated TV programs are habitually released during vacation periods. They make lots of money, especially the ones featuring Crayon Shin-chan, the precocious kindergartner whose penchant for scatological humor has made him the be^te noire of the Japanese PTA and a hero of an entire generation of schoolchildren.