[USFK Forums] U.S. ambassador to inspect Megumi Yokota's abduction site [Kyodo]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, March 16, 2006

U.S. ambassador to inspect Megumi Yokota's abduction site

Thursday March 16, 6:21 AM

(Kyodo) _ U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer plans to visit on Thursday the site where 13-year-old junior high school student Megumi Yokota was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977.

Megumi was snatched by North Korean agents near her home on Nov. 15, 1977 after participating in an extracurricular activity at her junior high school. According to a former North Korean agent, she was taken to North Korea aboard a ship which had been waiting at the beach near her home.

In Niigata, Schieffer will meet with Megumi's father Shigeru Yokota, 73, and her mother Sakie, 70, as well as supporters of the couple and other relatives of Japanese abductees, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has said. The couple now live in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The ambassador is accepting an invitation extended to him during an earlier meeting with relatives of abduction victims, the embassy said.

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.

In 1993, Megumi was admitted to a hospital where she killed herself in 1994 while being treated for depression, North Korea said.

During talks in Pyongyang in November 2004, North Korea handed over to Japan cremated remains it said were those of Megumi.

DNA analysis in Japan found that the remains belonged to two unknown people, but North Korea calls Japan's analysis a fabrication.

The Japanese government is also investigating the identity of Megumi's husband as they suspect he could be a South Korean named Kim Yong Nam who was abducted to North Korea.

It has collected DNA samples from the families of five South Korean abductees and is expected to check whether any of them match the 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, a current one, on an international wanted list over the alleged abductions of four Japanese to North Korea.

Sin is also suspected of involvement in the abduction of Megumi.



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