The World - News from March 24, 1989

A South Korean firm has seized the president of a Japanese machinery company for the second time in four months in a business dispute, and his whereabouts are unknown, his company said in Tokyo. Koji Kohno of the Japanese company Osawa Press Seisakusho said the firm has received demands from Namil Machine Co. in South Korea for $3.8 million. He said recent messages declared that Osawa Press President Tokuo Osawa had been beaten and that one of his fingers would be cut off and sent to back up demands for payment. The messages also threatened Osawa’s family, Kohno said. The dispute stems from six press machines Osawa sold to the South Korean firm last year that Namil says are defective. Osawa went to South Korea to offer technical assistance.