Dutch woman missing since 1978 may have been kidnapped, trained as a spy in North Korea

Leidy Kaspersma, a young Dutch woman who disappeared in Ireland in 1978, may have been kidnapped or lured to North Korea to be brainwashed and trained as a spy, the Telegraaf reported after a decade of investigating the then-26-year-old Overijssel woman’s disappearance.

Aleida Maria Anderske Kaspersma, known primarily as Leidy, was last seen on Sunday, July 2, 1978. She and her English boyfriend, Nick, traveled to a mountainous area near Kenmare. He claims he broke up with her near there, and after finishing up some shopping, she asked him to stop the car. Rattled and upset, she kissed him goodbye and got out of the car, wanting to walk back to their hotel to cool off, he said. She has not been seen since.

According to the Telegraaf, Nell, an aunt of Leidy, contacted the newspaper about a decade ago after it wrote about a North Korean abduction program from the late 1970s. The country’s dictatorship abducted countless Japanese and South Koreans, reportedly to brainwash them and train them as spies.

Nell told the newspaper that Leidy’s then-boyfriend, Nick, had suddenly surfaced in Lebanon after her disappearance. While he was there, four Lebanese women were also lured to North Korea under false pretenses. The Lebanese government managed to get some of them back. After their release, the Lebanese women said that they were imprisoned with 28 other women, including two Dutch women.

American lawyer Susan Komori, who works for the non-profit organization, Japanese Rescue Movement, dedicated to freeing countless Japanese hostages since 1998, told the newspaper that she had come across the name Leidy Kaspersma in information from North Korea in the early 1980s. “I cannot think of any other reason why we would know Leidy’s name. Except in relation to North Korea.”

Remco Breuker, a professor of Korean Studies at Leiden University, told the Telegraaf that he knows about the kidnappings. “It reminds you a lot of James Bond, but this really did happen. By now, there is enough evidence for that. Programs were set up in which foreigners, coordinated by the government, were lured to or kidnapped in North Korea.”

The kidnapped foreigners were supposed to return to their country as spies for the Kim dynasty, but the focus was quickly shifted to training North Korean spies so that their behavior would not attract attention abroad, he said.

What happened to Leidy remains unclear. Her disappearance is considered to be one of the oldest cold cases involving a Dutch person who went missing on vacation, according to the national broadcast museum Beeld en Geluid. Police have not publicly updated her case in 14 years.

Leidy was always a bit of a strange character, her older sister Tineke told the newspaper. “Leidy was alternative and at one point had long red hair. Dyed with henna. And then she would walk through Rijssen barefoot, with her boyfriend’s dog,” Tineke said. “And well, then the whole of Rijssen got turned upside down, of course. That became world news.”

Leidy would be 74 years old today. She is described by police as 1.7 meters tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.