Ex-N. Korean spy Kim likely to visit Japan in July+

SEOUL/TOKYO, July 8 Kyodo -
Japan and South Korea are making arrangements for former North Korean spy Kim
Hyon Hui, who was involved in blowing up a Korean Air jetliner in 1987, to
visit Japan this month, government sources of the two countries said Thursday.
During her visit, it is thought that the 48-year-old Kim, who lives in South
Korea, will meet with the parents of Megumi Yokota -- one of the Japanese who
Tokyo says remain unaccounted for after being abducted to North Korea --
because she has said she met with the Japanese woman in the North.
Yokota was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at age 13 when she was
returning home from school. Pyongyang said she died in North Korea, but her
family does not believe the claim.
Details of Kim's itinerary are to be worked out after the House of Councillors
election in Japan on Sunday, according to the sources.
The two governments may keep Kim's activities in Japan behind closed doors due
to security concerns, the sources said.
South Korea and Japan had sought to arrange for Kim to visit Japan in May, but
the visit was postponed after South Korea expressed reservations, largely over
the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
The uncovering of a plot by North Korean agents to kill Hwang Jang Yop, a
high-ranking North Korean official who defected to the South, also worked
against the prospective visit.
After being apprehended in Bahrain and sent to South Korea, Kim was sentenced
to death by a court in 1989 for her role in the airliner bombing, which killed
all 115 people on board. She was later freed under a presidential pardon.
Japan and North Korea remain at odds over the abduction issue - the key
stumbling block to normalizing bilateral ties.
North Korea admitted in 2002 it abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the late
1970s and early 1980s. Five of them have since returned to Japan but North
Korea said the other eight died and maintains the abduction issue has been
resolved.
Japan disputes this and wants North Korea to reinvestigate the cases and return
any surviving abductees.
Hiroshi Nakai, Japan's minister in charge of the abduction issue who has played
a leading role in arranging Kim's visit, said Thursday that an incident in
Seoul the previous day in which a protester threw a stone at the Japanese
ambassador will not affect ongoing consultations over the matter.
''The ties and trust between Japan and South Korea are extremely strong,''
Nakai said at a news conference in Tokyo. ''While we are continuing the
negotiations, they won't be influenced by this kind of incident.''
==Kyodo
2010-07-09 00:11:05


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