Japanese Official Meets 4 Abductees During Lunch Break
TOKYO — A Japanese government official met with four survivors of the 11 Japanese nationals who were abducted to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s during a lunch break at Tuesday's summit meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, government sources said.
North Korea revealed that the four are Shiho Chimura, Fukie Hamamoto, Kaoru Hasuike and Yukiko Okudo. Chimura and Hamamoto disappeared on July 7, 1978 from Obama in Fukui Prefecture, and Hasuike and Okudo went missing on July 31 that year from Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.
Kazuyoshi Umemoto, a minister at the Japanese Embassy in Britain and head of Japan's summit preparatory headquarters in Pyongyang, confirmed the identities of the four Japanese in his face-to-face meeting in which they expressed their desire to return to Japan, according to the sources.
According to the sources, Koizumi wanted to meet with the four but they declined, saying they were not psychologically prepared for it.
Umemoto also met with the daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was taken to North Korea at age 13 in 1977 from Niigata City and is one of the six who were confirmed dead, the sources said.
North Korea notified Japan that Yokota and five others of the 11 were dead and the whereabouts of the other person is not known. (Kyodo News)
TOKYO — A Japanese government official met with four survivors of the 11 Japanese nationals who were abducted to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s during a lunch break at Tuesday's summit meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, government sources said.
North Korea revealed that the four are Shiho Chimura, Fukie Hamamoto, Kaoru Hasuike and Yukiko Okudo. Chimura and Hamamoto disappeared on July 7, 1978 from Obama in Fukui Prefecture, and Hasuike and Okudo went missing on July 31 that year from Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.
Kazuyoshi Umemoto, a minister at the Japanese Embassy in Britain and head of Japan's summit preparatory headquarters in Pyongyang, confirmed the identities of the four Japanese in his face-to-face meeting in which they expressed their desire to return to Japan, according to the sources.
According to the sources, Koizumi wanted to meet with the four but they declined, saying they were not psychologically prepared for it.
Umemoto also met with the daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was taken to North Korea at age 13 in 1977 from Niigata City and is one of the six who were confirmed dead, the sources said.
North Korea notified Japan that Yokota and five others of the 11 were dead and the whereabouts of the other person is not known. (Kyodo News)