An indictment of one of the worst regimes on the planet: The Orphan Master's Son

Not making a rapid progress through Adam Johnson's long novel "The Orphan Master's Son" but am very impressed with what I've read to date - the first section a powerful account of the misery of life in North Korea as experienced by a young boy in an orphanage (he repeatedly reminds everyone that he's not an orphan - his dad runs the orphanage - but he's motherless and treated as badly as the orphans) who gets drawn into a unit of the North Korean army? navy? and assigned to kidnap Japanese people from the shore. Did this really happen? Not something we heard about in the West till this novel, as far as I know. The story builds toward the kidnapping of an opera star - not sure what the motives of the North Korean powers might be for these horrific actions - not ransom, apparently, perhaps trade for North Korean prisoners? The motive isn't obvious and none makes a lot of sense other than creating international mayhem. Meanwhile the hero, Jung Do (?), has at least one strong opportunity to escape - as well as an opportunity to let his victim escape - but he doesn't do so. Why is that? Fear of the unknown, or of getting caught and killed or condemned to an even worse life? Not clear how this is shaping up as a work of fiction, but it's hard not to read it as a documentary indictment of one of the worst regimes on the planet.