MS Unsolved: Was North Korea behind the cold case of five social escorts who went missing in Singapore?
MS Unsolved is a series that hopes to raise awareness of cold cases in Singapore and generate new leads. If you have any information on the cases, reach out to MS News or the police.
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On the fateful evening of 20 Aug 1978, a Singaporean and four Malaysian women, who worked as social escorts, joined three ‘generous’ clients on a ship anchored off the coast of Singapore.
None of them would ever be seen again despite the efforts of the police.
Source: New Nation via NewspaperSG
48 years later, the fate of the missing women remains unknown.
Rumours flew that they had been kidnapped into overseas prostitution rings, but in recent years, a new suspect arose: North Korea.
Missing social escorts all 24 or younger
The five young women worked as social escorts at an unlicensed agency operating from a flat in Clemenceau Avenue.
24-year-old Singaporean Diana Ng Kum Yim was the oldest of the agency’s escorts. Due to the stigma surrounding escort work, Ms Ng kept her job a secret from her parents.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Malaysian Margaret Ong was only 19 and had been in the business for four months.
Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Seetoh Tai Thim was the least experienced, having joined the agency just two weeks before the disappearance.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Yeng Yoke Fun and Yap Me Leng, both 22-year-old Malaysians, rounded out the unfortunate set of women.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Also working with them was the 24-year-old Helen Tan, the only other Singaporean alongside Ms Ng.
Alleged Hong Kong businessman client becomes known for generosity
On 10 Aug 1978, the escort agency’s owner, “Mummy” Yoong Kwee Yin, received a phone call from a potential client.
This man claimed to be “Mr Wong”, a Hong Kong businessman in his 40s.
One by one, Mr Wong requested all six social escorts at his room in the Peninsula Hotel over the next few days.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
He became well-liked due to his charming personality and generosity, giving each woman a S$50 tip on top of their standard fee.
Mr Wong would even bring them on lavish shopping sprees after their services in the hotel, affectionately earning him the nickname of ‘Big Spender’.
Source: Missing on mewatch
Five out of six escorts selected for lavish party on 20 Aug
On 14 Aug, two associates of his flew into Singapore, under the fake names of Iwamato Akiro and Tanaka Chuji.
Mr Wong made reservations for them at the King’s Hotel in Havelock Road before introducing them to Mdm Yoong’s agency. They paid for Ms Yeng’s services.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Then, on 19 Aug, the three men told Mdm Yoong that they would be throwing a lavish farewell party the next day.
Each escort would then receive a diamond as a bonus, which Mr Wong had showed them.
In initial reports, Ms Helen Tan claimed she was invited but had a prior appointment at a race course.
An article four years later revealed that Mr Wong only asked for five of them. Ms Tan was furious to have been snubbed out of what she expected to be a lucrative payday.
She would later call it “the luckiest day of my life”.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Men brought victims onto cargo ship at night
On the afternoon of 20 Aug, a Sunday, Mr Wong hired a motor sampan from the historic Jardine Steps jetty, near Keppel Shipyard.
Mr Awang, the boatman, was paid S$8 an hour to bring the three men and five women to Sentosa for a picnic.
Source: Missing on mewatch
On the return trip, Mr Wong told him to give them a tour of the harbour instead. The request irritated Mr Awang, as harbour tours cost more, but he carried it out.
At around 6pm, Mr Wong changed his plans and told the boatman to drop the women off at Merdeka Bridge.
They protested. Wading onto the muddy shores of the Kallang Basin did not seem like a good idea.
Source: Missing on mewatch
The businessman thus ordered Mr Awang to head back to Jardine Steps. Halfway there, as the sky turned dark, Mr Wong allegedly changed his mind yet again.
He directed Mr Awang to the Eastern Anchorage, off the shore of Marina Bay. Following his instructions, Mr Awang came to a stop alongside an anchored grey-hulled cargo ship.
The eight passengers then boarded, with the escorts laughing and in a good mood. This would be the last time anyone saw the women.
Source: Missing on mewatch
Severed hand belonging to a woman found in nearby waters
Ms Diana Ng’s close friend, Ms Koh Kim Toh, began an urgent search when the five women never turned up again.
Two days after the disappearance, she met Mr Awang, who sailed her to where the ship had been. By then, it was gone.
Source: Missing on mewatch
Unfortunately, Mr Awang did not remember its name or port of registry.
With hundreds of cargo freighters moored in Singapore’s coastal waters that day, identifying the right one with no clues was impossible.
Source: Missing on mewatch
On 26 Aug, a severed human hand was found in the sea off the nearby Keppel Shipyard.
The police determined that the decomposed right hand was that of a young woman with manicured fingernails and traces of nail polish.
It was never determined if the hand belonged to one of the five missing victims. One inspector on the case, Christopher Sng, later said he “firmly believed” that it did.
Source: Missing on mewatch
Missing social escorts suspected to have been sold into sex slavery
In September that year, Interpol told Singapore police of a similar case in Macau.
Three women had gone missing in July that year after dinner with an alleged Japanese man known as “Mr Fukuda”.
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Investigators suspected that Mr Fukuda and Mr Wong could be the same person.
The police also learnt that Mr Wong had registered at the Peninsula hotel as ‘Kyokukan Daraka’, using a fake passport.
Theories abounded on what had happened to the missing social escorts. Some suspected that a Hong Kong vice ring had kidnapped the victims and sold them into prostitution in Bombay (now Mumbai).
Source: The Straits Times via NewspaperSG
Other theories included a Japanese criminal syndicate, or the women being sexually exploited in a “floating brothel”.
Yet, after years of investigation, the police were no closer to solving the case.
American captive in North Korea claims he saw missing victim there
In 2005, the case would see a new, unexpected trail emerge. A Japanese TV station was making a special programme on the disappearance of the five women.
The TV crew interviewed Charles Robert Jenkins, an American soldier who deserted into North Korea in 1965. He had been held captive for 39 years before being released in 2002.
Source: US Army via Wikimedia Commons
Mr Jenkins claimed to have seen a picture of Ms Yeng in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in 1980 or 1981. He remembered her as working at a shop there.
North Korea has a known history of kidnapping citizens from other countries. Even Mr Jenkins’ wife, Hitomi Soga, was a Japanese woman abducted by North Korean agents.
The abductees were used to teach their language and culture to North Korean spies.
Kidnapped actress heard rumours of Malaysians in North Korea
Infamously, South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, were both kidnapped under the direct order of the dictator Kim Jong Il.
Source: Magnolia Pictures
Kim, a big fan of the ‘Godzilla’ movies, forced them to produce a giant monster film, ‘Pulgasari’, among others.
Source: IMDb
After the remarried couple escaped, Ms Choi alleged hearing about a Malaysian couple in Pyongyang.
The cold case of the five missing escorts saw a rekindled interest in 2017 following the assassination of Kim Jong-nam in Kuala Lumpur. It is widely believed to have been masterminded by North Korea.
Whereabouts of the five missing social escorts remains a mystery
Despite the new theory, the case remains no closer to being solved 48 years later. Mr Jenkins and Ms Choi are seen as reliable, but they are certainly not infallible.
Source: New Nation via NewspaperSG
Little separates the possible sighting of Ms Yeng in North Korea from unsubstantiated claims of one of the women being seen in a floating brothel, as Mdm Yoong once alleged.
Whether the five victims were really sold into prostitution, kidnapped by North Korea, or experienced some other fate, we can only hope that the mystery will be solved one day.
Also read: This day 32 years ago: Thomas Yeo disappeared after meditating in a M’sia forest
This day 32 years ago: Thomas Yeo disappeared after meditating in a M’sia forest
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Featured image adapted from The Straits Times via NewspaperSG and NAS.
