Abe vows to keep tackling North Korea abduction issue

September 28, 2017

TOKYO- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stressed on Thursday his determination to keep up efforts to resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea.

At a meeting with Shigeo Iizuka, the 79-year-old leader of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, and others, in Tokyo, Abe said his cabinet will be intact after the dissolution of the House of Representatives, indicating that the government's determination to tackle the problem is unwavering.

After the meeting, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, was dissolved by Abe for an election in October.

The prime minister emphasized that his government's efforts toward the resolution of the abduction issue "won't stop."

Abe also said that he confirmed cooperation to resolve the abduction issue with US President Donald Trump and other leaders at the recent UN General Assembly.

"The US president made such (clear) remarks," Abe said, referring to Trump's first address to the General Assembly.

In his speech, the US leader mentioned North Korea's abduction of a Japanese girl, apparently Megumi Yokota, who went missing at the age of 13 in 1977.

Trump's remarks "will surely have an impact" on the development of the abduction issue, Abe said.

Sakie Yokota, the mother of the abduction victim, told Abe at the meeting that all she hopes is that the Japanese government "will achieve results" in the issue and called for information about abductees.

After the meeting with Abe, Hajime Matsumoto, the 70-year-old brother of Kyoko, who was abducted to North Korea at age 29 in 1977, told reporters that he believes that a photo of a woman purported to be his missing sister, released by a South Korean group on Wednesday, "is not her." Jiji Press