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4TH LD: U.S. envoy visits place where N. Korea abducted Megumi Yokota+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)NIIGATA, Japan, March 16_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING) U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer on Thursday visited the site in Niigata city where North Korean agents abducted 13-year-old Megumi Yokota in 1977 and promised to her family he will raise the abduction issue with U.S. President George W. Bush. Megumi was kidnapped on her way home from her nearby junior high school on Nov. 15, 1977, after participating in an extracurricular activity. According to a former North Korean agent, she was taken to North Korea aboard a ship that had been waiting at a beach near her home. Accompanied by her parents, Shigeru, 73, and Sakie, 70, as well as their supporters and the Niigata mayor, Schieffer toured the street believed to be the abduction site, Megumi's former house and the beach. While walking around the area in the morning, the ambassador asked the Yokotas, who now live in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, many questions. "I'm so glad that I came today because I think anyone who has walked these streets as I have would be touched," Schieffer said at a news conference held in the afternoon at a Niigata hotel following his visit of the abduction site. "This is one of the saddest, if not the saddest, stories I have ever heard," he said. Schieffer's visit Thursday marked the first inspection by an American ambassador of an abduction site, according to embassy officials. "The visit was significant for the resolution of the abduction issue because it signals both to Japan and the world that the United States has interest in the issue," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told an afternoon press conference. In the morning, Schieffer and the Yokotas first visited the junior high school Megumi attended and then moved to an intersection where she is believed to have been kidnapped, because a police dog lost track of her trace at that location. The group then walked to the seashore from which she is believed to have been taken aboard a North Korean vessel. All these places are within a range of one kilometer in a peaceful neighborhood where children play outside and old men walk dogs along the beach. Schieffer said, "It (the issue of abduction) just cannot be allowed to stay because it is opposed to everything that a civilized society believes in...We must do everything so that this would never happen again." The ambassador promised the family members that he will raise the issue with President Bush. "I believe his visit will be a strong supporting force for resolving the issue," Shigeru told the same news conference. According to the Yokotas, Schieffer had expressed his intention to visit the abduction site during an earlier meeting with them. "This was even more moving than I expected," said Schieffer at the end of the visit. During the walk to the abduction site, the Yokotas shared a story with the ambassador, telling him that they initially thought Megumi was abducted for ransom and waited for a call. But the call that came three months after her disappearance was a hoax. "It would have been better if the call had been real because then we would have found her," Sakie said, recalling the disappointment when the traced call led to a high school student. Megumi has been missing for nearly 30 years since then. North Korea has told Japan that Megumi married a man named Kim Chol Jun in 1986 and gave birth to a daughter, Kim Hye Gyong, the following year. According to North Korea, Megumi was admitted to a hospital in 1993, where she killed herself in 1994 while being treated for depression. During talks in Pyongyang in November 2004, North Korea handed over to Japan cremated remains it said were hers. DNA analysis in Japan found the remains belonged to two unknown people. North Korea calls Japan's analysis a fabrication. The Japanese government is investigating the identity of Megumi's husband as it suspects he could be a South Korean named Kim Yong Nam, who was himself abducted by North Korea. It has collected DNA samples from the families of five South Korean abductees and is expected to check whether any match DNA samples taken from Megumi's daughter. The abduction issue has been a barrier to Japan and North Korea normalizing diplomatic relations. On March 3, Japan put Sin Guang Su, a former North Korean agent, and Choe Sung Chol, an active one, on an international wanted list over the alleged abductions of four Japanese citizens. Sin is also suspected of involvement in Megumi's abduction. |