[USFK Forums] Schieffer visits site of Yokota abdcution [Asahi]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, March 18, 2006

Schieffer visits site of Yokota abduction

03/17/2006The Asahi Shimbun

NIIGATA--Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, on Thursday visited the site where 13-year-old Megumi Yokota was abducted by North Korean agents in November 1977.

The schoolgirl, who Pyongyang says committed suicide in North Korea, has become a symbol of the "abduction issue," the main stumbling block in talks on normalizing relations.

Schieffer met with Megumi's father, Shigeru Yokota, 73, and her mother, Sakie, 70, at the site where the abduction apparently took place.

"She disappeared at a spot just a short distance from our home," Shigeru said. "We had no news whatsoever about her for nearly 20 years."

The couple and others in the party guided Schieffer from the city-run Yorii Junior High School, which Megumi attended, to the beach where she was believed snatched and taken to North Korea aboard a ship.

The ambassador expressed his sympathies for the agony the Yokotas endured after the disappearance of their loved one.

In a news conference held later, Schieffer described the abduction as a tragic incident that would affect any American. He said he would like to tell President George W. Bush about it.

North Korea allowed five Japanese who were abducted in 1978 to return to Japan in 2002. Their children born in North Korea and an American husband arrived later.

But the abduction issue has not been settled because of questions concerning other missing Japanese. North Korea has said those people are either dead or never entered the country.

North Korean officials also handed over what they said were Megumi's cremated remains, but the Japanese government said DNA tests showed they were not hers. Family members of those still missing insist their loved ones are still alive.

According to Kazoku-kai, an association of families of abduction victims headed by Shigeru Yokota, Schieffer met with members in May last year soon after he took over as U.S. ambassador.

During that meeting, Schieffer promised to visit the abduction sites and offer his support in resolving the issue.(IHT/Asahi: March 17,2006)


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