Tokyo refutes statements made at N.K. press conference

Yokoda Shigeru, father of Megume, who was allegedly kidnapped in 1977, visited Seoul in May 2006. Seoulk/Yonhap

Japan calls statements regarding alleged kidnap victim contradictory, manipulated

Tokyo said a press conference held June 29 in North Korea, in which it was maintained that suspected Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota had committed suicide in the North, was manipulated by Pyongyang.

The Japanese government reaffirmed that it would solve the abductee problem with "dialogue and pressure."

The press conference, held by suspected South Korean abductee Kim Young-nam, who later went on to marry Megumi Yokota in the north, merely repeated North Korea’s claim that it has not committed any abductions since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The Japanese government said it doubted the North's position, and would continue to put pressure on North Korea. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a core hard-liner against the communist country, said, "There still are contradictory parts [to Kim’s explanation]. We should examine them." One contradiction cited by Tokyo is that Pyongyang earlier claimed that Megumi died in 1993, but according to Kim, she passed away in 1994.

A high-ranking official in the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, "There is no freedom in North Korea. Pyongyang's intention is to put an end to the abductee problem, so it made Kim say Megumi is dead." He stated that Japan will step up pressure against the North and "powerfully urge" Pyongyang to send Megumi and her daughter with Mr. Kim to Japan.

Japanese media called the reunion of Kim with his mother and sister living in South Korea, as well as the subsequent press conference, a "well-organized play." The media noted that Kim did not shed tears when he met his mother and elder sister after 28 years of separation. According to them, this was because he did not want to give the impression that North Korea is a "bad" country which commits abductions. They also noted that North Korean intelligence staff was closely watching the reunion.

Japan is concerned, however, that the effect of the 14th round of family reunions will be significant in swaying public sentiment against pushing to resolve the kidnapping issue. Tokyo is considering countermeasures, sources say, thinking that the North is trying to drive a wedge between South Korea-Japanese cooperation on the issue by using the emotional power of the separated family reunions.

Moreover, since Kim reaffirmed Megum’s death, people in Japan as well as other countries may think that North Korea has not lied about the matter, as Japan has maintained.