North Korea Willing to Send the Children of Abducted Japanese to Japan

North Korea Willing to Send the Children of Abducted Japanese to Japan. January. 15, 2004 23:21. by Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com.

Asahi Shinbun reported on January 15 that North Korea intends to send five children of abducted Japanese to Japan by March 20.

North Korea met with Secretary General Hirasawa Gatsuei of the Abduction Rescue Representative’s Alliance, a group of Japanese representatives beyond parties, in Beijing in December last year and said, “We will send them if their parents come to see them.” It was also known that North Korea had also expressed their will to investigate the reasons behind the death of eight Japanese who have passed away after being abducted.

Meanwhile, Nakayama Kyoko, who works in the abduction case department within the Japanese government, offered negative views regarding the North Korea’s remark, saying, “It is not allowed to freely speak one’s mind in Japan.”

Japan said that the children could say against their will that “they do not want to go to Japan,” pressured by the outer environment, if they meet in Pyongyang, and they worried that the problem might become more complicated in that case.