U.S.-N. Korea Summit Draws Mixed Reactions from Abduction Victim Families

June 13, 2018

Tokyo, June 12 (Jiji Press)--The historic U.S.-North Korea summit, held in Singapore on Tuesday, drew mixed reactions from families of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago.

"A miracle happened," Sakie Yokota, 82, the mother of iconic abduction victim Megumi, who was snatched at age 13, told a press conference in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Yokota expressed her gratitude for U.S. President Donald Trump taking up the abduction issue at the meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"Now Japan should act," Yokota said, urging Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to meet with Kim.

"I'm not pessimistic." Yokota added.

"I welcome the fact that the abduction issue has gained renewed attention and I have expectations (for the abductees to be brought back home)," Shigeo Iizuka, 80, whose younger sister Yaeko Taguchi was abducted when she was 22, told reporters in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture. He serves as head of the abduction victim families' group.

"We are having a now-or-never chance to resolve the abduction issue," he stressed, calling on the government to move quickly.

Akihiro Arimoto, 89, the father of Keiko, who went missing in Europe at age 23, said in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, that he was satisfied with the outcome of the summit.

"It's advisable for Abe to meet with Kim as soon as possible," Arimoto said. "I don't think Kim will refuse the meeting."

Meanwhile, Fumiyo Saito, 72, the elder sister of Kaoru Matsuki, who was kidnapped when he was 26, expressed her disappointment at the summit during a press conference in the Kumamoto prefectural government's office. "I'm shocked by the (Trump-Kim) joint statement containing nothing (about the abduction issue)," Saito said.

Hajime Matsumoto, 71, who has been waiting for his younger sister Kyoko, abducted at age 29, to get back home, took Trump's reference to the issue at the summit as a "major step forward."

But concerned about the possibility of Trump ending his commitment to the issue only with the remark, Matsumoto expressed his intention to closely watch future developments. Jiji Press