Ex-N. Korean spy provides little about Yokota's whereabouts: parents+

TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo -
Former North Korean agent Kim Hyon Hui provided few details about Megumi
Yokota, one of the Japanese abducted by North Korea, her parents said Thursday
after meeting with the ex-spy responsible for the fatal 1987 South Korean
jetliner explosion.
''We couldn't discover what we wanted to know most,'' Yokota's 74-year-old
mother Sakie said at a news conference in the town of Karuizawa, Nagano
Prefecture, where Kim stayed after arriving in Japan on Tuesday.
The abductee's 77-year-old father Shigeru said that while Kim, 48, appeared
sincere during the meeting, ''there was nothing new'' in what she told them
about their long-missing daughter.
Kim, who now lives in South Korea, has told Japanese government officials since
May last year that she had met with Yokota in the North while undergoing
training as an agent. Supporters of the families of abductees believe it to be
around 1984, judging from Kim's account that she was studying Chinese at the
time.
During Wednesday's meeting, Kim told Yokota's parents that she had met with her
''just once,'' while she did not specify when or where, according to the
couple.
Kim's testimony provided the impetus for her first-ever meeting with the
Yokotas, which took place at former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's country
house in the resort town northwest of Tokyo on Wednesday evening. Yokota's
41-year-old twin brothers, Takuya and Tetsuya, were also present.
Kim met with the family of another abductee, Yaeko Taguchi, before the meeting
with the Yokotas, and with nine family members of other abductees on Thursday
afternoon in Tokyo.
Hiroshi Nakai, state minister in charge of the abduction issue, said the
government has received information that Taguchi, who the North claims died in
1986 in an accident, was ''doing fine six or seven years ago'' in Pyongyang,
though adding it has no information on how she is now.
Shigeo Iizuka, the 72-year-old brother of Taguchi who met with Kim together
with Taguchi's 33-year-old son Koichiro Iizuka, said he wants the Japanese
government to look thoroughly at the information.
Traveling from suburban Chofu to central Tokyo by helicopter, Kim also met with
other abductees' families, including the parents of Keiko Arimoto and the
54-year-old brother of Rumiko Masumoto, Teruaki Masumoto.
The meeting lasted for about one and a half hours, and many of the families
said in a press conference afterwards that they were encouraged by Kim's words
not to lose hope, while revealing they have not received new information from
her regarding their missing family members.
Kim is due to head back to South Korea on Friday.
Separately, Kim told Japanese politicians, including Takeo Hiranuma who heads
the Diet members' bipartisan caucus on the abduction issue, that ''strenuous''
efforts will be necessary in dealing with North Korea.
''Strenuous negotiations with North Korea are necessary'' to solve the
abduction issue, Kim was quoted as saying during the meeting with the Diet
members, also including Cabinet Office Senior Vice Minister Kohei Otsuka.
Meanwhile, Kim's 40-minute flight over points just 30-kilometers apart prompted
speculation that it was a sightseeing tour as the helicopter flew over bay
areas from where Mt. Fuji could be seen. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito
Sengoku said the flight was aimed at avoiding traffic.
While Kim's meeting with the Yokotas seemed to shed little light on Megumi
Yokota's whereabouts, her mother Sakie nonetheless expressed pleasure at having
had the opportunity to meet with the former North Korean spy. Kim ''was near
Megumi,'' she said. ''Meeting her is like a dream. I was so happy.''
The Yokotas said they were not sure when Kim met with their daughter, but that
Kim told them that she and a colleague once went to see the abductee and the
three of them had a Korean-style pancake Megumi made.
Kim also remembered Yokota keeping many cats. She cheered up the parents at the
end of their meeting, saying, ''Megumi is definitely alive. So don't give up,
keep your hopes up,'' according to Sakie. ''She encouraged me a lot,'' the
mother said.
Yokota was abducted in 1977 at the age of 13 on her way home from school in
Niigata Prefecture and has become a symbolic figure among the Japanese
abduction victims.
Pyongyang claims that Yokota died in North Korea, but her family rejects the
assertion and believes she is still alive. Tokyo also dismisses Pyongyang's
claim about Yokota.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Kim met with Shigeo and Koichiro Iizuka at the same
country house in Karuizawa.
During their conversation, Kim told them that she recognized some of the faces
that appear on a poster of possible abductees, Koichiro told reporters earlier.
Shigeo and Koichiro had given her the poster, made by a support group for
abductees, in March last year when the three met for the first time in Busan,
South Korea.
Kim said she has passed the information on to the Japanese government, while
not providing further details, according to Koichiro.
Kim, who was arrested shortly after the bombing of a Korean Air passenger jet,
was sentenced to death in South Korea but was later pardoned and freed.
She arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday on a Japanese government-chartered aircraft.
Although Japanese law denies entry to foreign nationals sentenced to one year
or more in jail, the Justice Ministry issued her a special permit for entry.
==Kyodo
2010-07-23 00:20:08


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