Abe Shows Resolve on Abduction Issue to Families of Victims

June 15, 2018

Tokyo- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe highlighted his determination to resolve the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals, at a meeting with members of the victims' families on Thursday.

At the meeting, held at the prime minister's office, Abe explained that U.S. President Donald Trump took up the abduction issue at his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday.

"I'm determined to resolve the abduction issue by facing North Korea directly," the Japanese leader told the family members, including Sakie Yokota, 82, the mother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted to North Korea in 1977 at the age of 13.

"The question is how surely and fast Japan can produce results," Shigeo Iizuka, 80, said at the meeting. He heads a group of the families of the abduction victims. His younger sister, Yaeko Taguchi, was kidnapped in 1978 at age 22. "We want the Japanese government to take concrete measures to resolve the issue," Iizuka said.

Abe replied that the abduction issue is a bilateral problem between Japan and North Korea. "Japan must take action at its own initiative to resolve the problem."

At a press conference after the meeting, Iizuka said he felt that the Trump-Kim meeting, the first-ever summit between the United States and North Korea, was "the beginning of the beginning" for the resolution of the abduction issue. "We've long been deceived by North Korea, so we should never make the same mistake," he stressed.

Yokota said she told the prime minister that she strongly hopes to see a situation as early as possible in which the abduction victims reunite with their families.

Teruaki Masumoto, 62, whose elder sister, Rumiko, was abducted by North Korea in 1978 at the age of 24, noted that there could be a possibility of the abduction issue being resolved by the end of this year. He said he asked the prime minister never to provide assistance to North Korea unless the abductees are rescued.

At the meeting with the abductee families, the prime minister explained the results of the Trump-Kim summit as well as his government's policy on North Korean issues.

The relatives refrained from disclosing what Abe told them, at the request of the government.

It has been learned that Trump told Kim at the Singapore summit that the United States will not provide economic aid to North Korea without the resolution of the abduction issue. In response, Kim reportedly showed his readiness to hold talks with Abe.

Trump is reported to have told Kim that he is ready to mediate talks between the Japanese and North Korean leaders.

Kim did not repeat his country's claim that the abduction issue has already been settled, during his summit with Trump, and the Japanese government sees this as a positive sign.

Some Japanese government officials are considering the possibility of arranging direct contact between Abe and Kim on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok in September, on the assumption that Kim may join the forum, informed sources said.

Still, Tokyo plans to carefully examine whether Kim will actually move to resolve the abduction issue as North Korea's true intentions remain unclear, the sources said. Jiji Press