Chong hopes for info on missing five

PETALING JAYA: As efforts are underway to secure the release of the 11 Malaysians stranded in North Korea, MCA Youth hopes that there will be new information over the disappearance of four Malay­sians and a Singaporean nearly 40 years ago.

The movement’s chief Datuk Chong Sin Woon said the five women disappeared without a trace in August 1978 and were believed to have ended up in North Korea.

They are Yeng Yoke Fun, 22, Yap Me Leng, 22, Seetoh Tai Thim, 19 and Margaret Ong Guat Choo, 19. The Singaporean was Diana Ng Kum Yim, 24.

He said the five were working in Singapore and were last seen at a celebration aboard a ship. They never returned after boarding the vessel that sailed away.

Chong, who is MCA Overseas Liaison Bureau chairman, said an American who defected to North Korea and later allowed to leave reportedly claimed to have seen a picture of Yeng.

“He remembered her as working at a shop in an amusement park in 1980 or 1981,” said Chong.

Chong said there were also reports that another abductee – South Korean actress Choi Eun Hee – claimed to have heard of two Malaysians living in Pyongyang.

Chong said in 2005, the families of the four Malaysian women ap­­proached MCA Public Services and Complaints Department to help obtain information on their whereabouts and to bring them home.

“We appeal for this case to be reopened,” Chong said in a statement.