Ex-N. Korean spy Kim says abductee Taguchi is in Pyongyang: kin+

TOKYO, Aug. 1 Kyodo -
Former North Korean agent Kim Hyon Hui told family members of Japanese abductee
Yaeko Taguchi during her recent visit to Japan that Taguchi is in Pyongyang,
her elder brother Shigeo Iizuka said Saturday.
Kim, 48, revealed the whereabouts of Taguchi, who was abducted in 1978 and said
by the North to have died in 1986, when Iizuka, 72, asked her where his sister
is during a meeting July 20 in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on the first day
of her four-day visit, he said.
But Iizuka refrained from asking for details such as the source of her
information as Kim, who was convicted of blowing up a South Korean airliner in
1987 and later pardoned, appeared awkward in the presence of South Korean
government officials who were accompanying her, he said.
''I took it as hope for the family,'' Iizuka said.
In Seoul on July 21, Choi Song Yong, who heads a South Korean group of families
of South Korean abduction victims, also said he had been told that Taguchi is
living in the North Korean capital, citing a source close to North Korean
affairs.
==Kyodo