Bid to Identify KAL Suspect Fails : Mystery Man Is Not Figure in Earlier North Korean Plot

An attempt by Japanese authorities to find a match for the fingerprints of a mystery man linked to a missing South Korean jetliner was unsuccessful, a Japanese official said Friday.

Other officials had suggested that the mystery man--who killed himself with poison this week after being detained for questioning on the fate of Korean Air Flight 858--might be a Korean using the Japanese name Akira Miyamoto. Miyamoto was one of two suspects in a 1983 North Korean spy scandal in Japan.

The mystery man and his woman companion bit into poison capsules before being questioned Tuesday about the disappearance of the South Korean jetliner that many officials now believe may have been bombed. The woman survived and is in a military hospital in Bahrain. They were passengers on part of the flight of the missing airliner and were believed to be Koreans living in Japan.

On Forged Passports

Fingerprints of the man and woman, traveling on forged Japanese passports as father and daughter, were sent to Japan as part of the expanding investigation of the bizarre incident.

Takao Natsume, the acting Japanese ambassador, told reporters Friday in Manama: “The fingerprints were matched against those of . . . Akira Miyamoto, but did not match. . . .”

The two were on the Korean Air flight from Baghdad to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, and later the same day flew from Abu Dhabi to Bahrain, an island sheikdom in the Persian Gulf. Bahraini authorities arrested them before they were able to board a flight to Rome.

Their false passports identified the woman as Mayumi Hachiya, 27, and the man as Shinichi Hachiya, 69. The real Hachiya told police in Tokyo he had known the Korean some years ago in Japan.

No Trace of Aircraft

No trace has been found of the Boeing 707, which Thai officials believe crashed either in jungles near the Burma-Thailand border or in Burmese waters of the Andaman Sea. The flight originated in Baghdad, Iraq, and was bound for Seoul with stops at Abu Dhabi, Amman and Bangkok.

South Korean officials have said they believe that the plane, which had 115 people aboard, was destroyed by a bomb and that Communist North Korea is responsible.

Natsume indicated at a news conference here that Bahraini and Japanese officials had urged him not to disclose too much about the case. The diplomat would not say whether anyone had seen the woman Friday or tried to interview her.

“We don’t want to disturb the investigation going on by the Bahraini authorities,” he said.

Refuses to Talk

Two Japanese diplomats and a South Korean tried to interview her in the heavily guarded hospital after she regained consciousness Thursday, but Natsume said she refused to talk.

South Korean diplomats also refused to say whether anyone had seen the woman.

In Seoul on Friday, U.S. Ambassador James Lilley visited South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Kwang Soo and promised U.S. assistance in searching for the wreckage of the missing plane.