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Choi Gye-wol, second from left, the mother of South Korean abductee Kim Young-nam, wipes away tears yesterday upon meeting Shigeru Yokota, right, the father of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota, who is believed to have married to Mr. Kim, at the Abductee Families Organization office in Seoul. By Lee Jong-keun.
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Emotional embrace underscores need for resolution of N.K. kidnapping issue
Families of Megumi Yokota and Kim Young-nam, a Japanese and South Korean kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s, met on May 16 for the first time. The two abductees were married in North Korea, according to sources in the Japanese government. Shigeru Yokota, 73, father of Megumi Yokota, and her brother, Tetsuya Yokota, 37, met Choi Gye-wol, 82, mother of Kim Young-nam, and his elder sister, Kim Yeong-ja, 48, at a hall of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives in Songpa-gu. The meeting was arranged through South Korea’s Abductee Family Assembly. The family members were tearful at the meeting; it has been more than 30 years since their children and siblings were abducted to North Korea.Shigeru Yokota said, “Now we are family, so let’s meet as frequently as possible.” Megumi’s brother wiped away tears, saying, “Upon seeing my Korean relatives, I have come to think about so many of the difficult situations [we faced] after losing my sister." Kim Yeong-ja said, “Since my brother was kidnapped to the North, I have lived in shock and fear.” But she added, laughing, “I think my brother’s daughter is so pretty because she resembles her Japanese family.” Both families have seen pictures of Kim Young-nam’s daughter, Kim Hye-gyeong, who is thought to be from his marriage with Megumi Yokota. The families exchanged gifts at the meeting, the Yokota family gift a decorative piece bearing the mark designed to commemorate the victims of abduction. The Yokota family has urged the Japanese government to apply economic sanctions against the North, and called upon the Korean government to take a proactive stance in handling the abductee issue. The families are slated to meet again in Tokyo on May 28. Choi Sung-young, leader of the Abductee Family Assembly, said that Tokyo provided information it had obtained on the case to the family of Kim Young-nam. According to the Japanese government, Kim Young-nam, who was kidnapped in August 1978, has since graduated from Kim Jong-il Political & Military University in the North and is working at the foreign information inquiry section of Rodong (Workers’) Party, an agency which gathers intelligence about the South. Mr. Kim first met Ms. Yokota to learn Japanese at the end of 1985, and they were married in August of the following year. After giving birth to their daughter, Hye-gyeong, Megumi suffered from hypochondria. After that, they were on bad terms with each other, separating in fall of 1993. Ms. Yokota committed suicide in April 1994, and Mr. Kim remarried in 1997, according to the Japanese government.
