[USFK Forums] Japan to release DNA test over S. Korean who may be Yokota's husband

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, March 30, 2006

Japan to release DNA test over S. Korean who may be Yokota's husband

Wednesday March 29, 11:15 PM

(Kyodo) _ Japan plans to soon release the result of a DNA test on a relative of a South Korean man deemed to be the possible husband of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese abductee to North Korea, Parliamentary Foreign Secretary Akiko Yamanaka said Wednesday.

Yamanaka told Shigeru Yokota, father of Megumi, who was abducted at age 13 in 1977, that the government wants to release the result to a group of relatives of abduction victims as soon as possible, according to participants of the meeting between Yamanaka and group members.

A government source said the result could be made public next week. The government has been analyzing the DNA of samples from the relative of the South Korean man, also believed to be a victim of abduction by the North, taken in mid-February.

The Japanese government has been analyzing whether the DNA matches that of Yokota's daughter Kim Hye Gyong.

North Korea has told the Japanese government that Yokota married a man named Kim Chol Jun in 1986 and gave birth in 1987 to a daughter.

The Japanese government obtained DNA samples from Kim Hye Gyong following Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's landmark visit to North Korea in September 2002 for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. North Korea says Yokota committed suicide while being treated for depression.

During a visit to Pyongyang in November 2004, a Japanese government delegation asked Kim Chol Jun, whom North Korea said was Megumi's husband, to provide hair samples for DNA testing and to give permission for his photograph to be taken but he refused, according to Japanese officials.


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