N Korea still snatching foreigners, Japanese NGO tells Geneva event

I wonder if the other nations are pounding North Korea for answers like Japan is. Or is just Japanese that they have kidnapped?

What a sensationalist headline! And the most recent kidnapping this year was...... ?

And the most recent kidnapping this year was...... ?

Probably back in October when that senior citizen vanished from the Grand Canyon. Gone without a trace... I mean, according to the logic of the men quoted in the article, North Korea hasn't provided evidence that they didn't do it so...

who was abducted in Madrid in 1980.

NK has abducted people from as far away as Madrid?

Or is just Japanese that they have kidnapped?

I've heard there were many that have been abducted from Skorea too.

North Korea admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to teach its spies about the Japanese language and culture.

That is ridiculous!

NK has many citizens living in Japan that know the language and culture. Some of these NK in Japan are certainly spies and have assisted in the kidnappings.

Also NK have killed Japanese in order to steal their identities.

What is/was the reason for the kidnaps?

Is Abe up to his old tricks again, trying to make this 1970s issue relevant?

"According to another government official, who asked not to be named, Pyongyang has failed to provide credible proof of the eight alleged deaths."

And Japan has yet to come up with any proof they are alive. What, a former NK spy who knows she will be wined and dined on the J-government's dime if she says, "I know someone who has a friend with a relative of a friend who heard someone speaking to a friend of a relative who said she heard someone speaking Japanese!"

“The logical conclusion is .. to believe that all of them are alive,”

No, that's not the logical conclusion at all. The logical conclusion would be that you simply do not know whether they are alive or not, and that you should not claim that emotion is a 'logical conclusion'.

"Many meanwhile believe the official figure of Japanese abductees probably only scratches the surface of the real number, since the kidnappings are so difficult to prove..."

So they are admittedly difficult to prove, but you insist they are 'still' kidnapping people all the same without the smallest shred of evidence! Come on, people! We all want to believe those taken are still alive, same as we'd like to believe the father who simply could not handle and left his family surely must have been kidnapped and didn't just run out on them and hide, but if you're going to make such claims you should at least have something to back it up. As it is this whole thing sounds utterly ridiculous.

I'm more than a little disturbed seeing people in these comments stand up for North @#$%ing Korea.

I'm sick of Iizuka mumbling his way into anything he can and saying whatever he wants without any proof.

Iizuka later during the news conference warned of the surge in monsters hiding under children's beds

zurcroniumNov. 09, 2012 - 02:51PM JST Is Abe up to his old tricks again, trying to make this 1970s issue relevant?

Pause for a moment and consider the average age of the voter in Japan. I think that Abe is a cunning old fox. New issues like "sustainable energy" are confusing and irrelevant to people who are in their 80's and won't change their habits. ... however things that happened 40 years ago are understandable and comprehensible.

I think Abe knows his demographic quite well and is trying to stir up this long-dead issue of Japan vs North Korea with a definite purpose.

nk may be evil but they play a very important role in asia politics...much like the supposed scourge in the middle east

True or not if the North Koreans are still abducting people and reprehensible as it is, it is so nauseating how the japanese act as if their hands are clean in regards to the subject of government assisted abduction.

After the election, nothing else will be said until the next election.

Why does japan bring things up if they arent going to resolve them?

If you ask anyone in the govt why so many japanese that were married to foreigners abroad, kidnapped their children from the other parent, and are granted asylum in japan..... The only answer you would get is hands in the pockets, whistling and looking the other way.

Having my children abducted from me in japan, and no policeman or city ward will help find them, i can only imagine what these families are going through since the 70s...

This issue should not be dropped. If there's a chance those people could still be alive, they should be brought back. There's NO reason to let that wacko country get away with this. Just like the POW issue is still alive in the US, it should always be an issue as long as they could still be there.

Guilty until proven innocent or innocent until proven guilty? It'll be hard to prove that N.Korea has kidnapped anyone recently, but they have already said they did kidnap people in the 70-80s. They haven't returned all of them either, whether alive or dead. Without concrete proof, majority of the world probably won't bother interfering.

So this "still snatching" claim informs the DPRK aspect of things, while the farmers (a sliver of the economy) keep pointing at the trans pacific trade pact.

Japan is kind of mis-directed these days, and priorities for all kinds of stuff need to be re-established.

Ms. AlexanderNov. 09, 2012 - 01:38PM JST I wonder if the other nations are pounding North Korea for answers like Japan is. Or is just Japanese that they have >kidnapped?

South Korea has some 400 people kidnapped by North Korea.

"Or is just Japanese that they have kidnapped?"

The article states very plainly in the final paragraph that other nationalities have been kidnapped as well. South Korea has made official motions to the North to return ther abducted citizens, for instance.

While I don't doubt that the North Koreans did indeed engage in state-sponsored kidnapping of Japanese citizens -- it would be silly to do so, since North Korea admitted to the practice -- I'm finding it hard to lend support to statements like, "Abductions are being carried out now. This is ongoing," that are devoid of any sort of proof whatsoever.

This kind of fear-mongering does little good for any Japanese citizens who may very well still be alive and trapped in North Korea.

Mr. Shigeo Iizuka desperately needs to step back and allow someone with a far more practical and objective viewpoint work on behalf of those people still missing.

Matsuki also told AFP that DNA tests on the supposed remains of his brother had shown they were a mishmash from several people, with some female and some animal remains thrown into the mix.

Animal DNA ??? Weird !!!!

WHO ? North Korea had kidnapped nationals from at least 11 other countries, including France, Italy and the United States.

Why can't Japan realize that as long as Japan keeps on conducting business with North Korea, these things will continue to happen. Japan should bar all North Korean shipshape from ever entering into Japanese waters again and deport all North Koreans in Japan who will not follow the rules. And not only that, Japan should also close all North Korean schools that are in Japan. WHEN WILL JAPAN GET SERIOUS WITH THIS ISSUE!!!

DP812: "I'm more than a little disturbed seeing people in these comments stand up for North @#$%ing Korea."

Show me one person standing up for North Korea. Or are you one of those people who believes if you don't stand up for these guys with no proof you automatically side with 'the enemy'. Personally I find the government of North Korea one of the most vile and corrupt entities on the planet, and their war crimes cannot be forgiven, but that does not change he fact that this group of Japanese have provided zero evidence of their claims. Things are not as black and white as: "If you criticize these people you are 100% in favour of the party THEY criticize". This kind of thinking is embarrassing, and went largely the way of the dinosaur thanks to former American president GWB using it for his, "You're either with us or against us" crap.

Japan would attack of NK. But Japan not do it. That situations is very strange.

In 2002, North Korea admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to teach its spies about the Japanese language and culture.

That is full delirium. I can not believe it. I sure that real reason are different.

What proof do they have that NK is still abducting people? I have no love for NK, but less produce some concrete proof that this is still happening.