Family of girl abducted by N Korea calls on gov't to ramp up efforts

North Korea declared dead are dead.

I can not imagine the pain and suffering these families have been going through for the past 40 to 50 years.

They are not getting any younger, and the government has a moral duty to see this through to whatever end it may be. If these people are truly dead, then provide the remains for testing and give these families peace!

this happened in the 70s!!!! Ramp up? you are 40 years too late. Stop already.

Japan can get South Korea and US on board to push this issue but unfortunately, it's Japan's own hypocrisy that makes this an impossible issue. Japan forcibly conscripted 5.4 million Koreans into slave with an estimated 270000 to 810000 worked to death in Manchuria alone while denying and white washing its own sins every step of the way. E.g. Japan tried to deny mentioning of the slave labor used on Hashima Island during attempts at registering the site as a UNESCO World Heritage Site thereby confirming to its neighbors in the region Japan's clear goal of denying its own human rights violations.

I am out of sympathy for these people. It should have been clear that after...oh...ten years or so... that if you wanted your daughter back you were going to have to do more than hold press conferences. Would love to know how much tax money the Yokoto’s recieve to be poster family for this issue.

Yeah, these two are the very definition of hope but in all honesty they're becoming tiresome.

Unless they know something we don't about their daughter just hold a funeral already and try and find some closure in the remaiming short years of their life.

If N.K. want the Yokotas to believe that their daughter was dead, they should provide proof, not childish lies.

Their daughter is gone, but possibly still alive - what can they do but keep drawing attention to it, and keep reminding people that this happened. As an elderly couple, that is as much as they can reasonably do, though i am sure they wish they could do more. I wonder what unsympathetic posters suggest they do?

Families of the abduction victims have pinned high hopes on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he has repeatedly said rescuing the abductees is a "top priority" for his Cabinet.

Then why did he slap more sanctions on NK right after Trump's visit?? Did he think that was going to help him get Megumi back??

As usual Abe is just full of hot air. He is using the Yokotas as tools to stoke more nationalism in Japan and giving them false hope. This is beyond cruel and heartless. Its despicable.

As usual Abe is just full of hot air. He is using the Yokotas as tools to stoke more nationalism in Japan and giving them false hope. This is beyond cruel and heartless. Its despicable.

Back in the late 1980s the LDP leadership was in Pyongyang taking bribes from Kim Il Sung to establish diplomatic relations with Japan. They knew what was happening with the North Koreans abducting Japanese citizens but ignored the problem for years. Then, when it became politically expedient for the likes of Abe, these families were taken out of the closet and used to further his ambitions. Cynical, hypocritical and heartless beyond words.

Why on Earth would North Korea even care what an old couple is going thru after all these decades, when they kill their own families and want to unleash nuclear war in the world. There absolutely nothing that could be done to bring back those abductees if they're even alive, to begin with.

The North Korean abduction issue is a political issue in Japan.

It is not about realistically getting these 30-40 year old cases to conclusion, but more an obligatory long standing thorn in the side of Japan.

Feel sorry for these people but in all honesty the likelihood of the abductees even being alive today, much less being returned while the current North Korean regime is in power is zero. This issue is being brought to the foreground (again) because the Trump administration is considering putting NK back on the list of Terrorosm sponsoring states.

And just exactly what do they expect the J-govt which has no diplomatic relations with NK to do?

melonbarmonsterToday 07:30 am JSTJapan can get South Korea and US on board to push this issue but unfortunately, it's Japan's own hypocrisy that makes this an impossible issue. Japan forcibly conscripted 5.4 million Koreans into slave with an estimated 270000 to 810000 worked to death in Manchuria alone while denying and white washing its own sins every step of the way. E.g. Japan tried to deny mentioning of the slave labor used on Hashima Island during attempts at registering the site as a UNESCO World Heritage Site thereby confirming to its neighbors in the region Japan's clear goal of denying its own human rights violations.

You're going to have to provide some evidence, for these off the scale enormous claims.

MariaToday  07:48 am JST

Their daughter is gone, but possibly still alive - what can they do but keep drawing attention to it, and keep reminding people that this happened. As an elderly couple, that is as much as they can reasonably do, though i am sure they wish they could do more. I wonder what unsympathetic posters suggest they do?

They are doing exactly what I would expect, which I completely understand. The question is really what can the government do, and the answer appears to be nothing at all in spite of Abe's endless claims to the contrary. What HE can do is stop exploiting this issue to get votes, and if the Yokotas are starting to realise just how useless, craven and self-serving he really is he might just have to.

Until there's credible opposition to the ldp dictatorship, expect more of the same underhanded political maneuvers unfortunately

Poor family... didn't they realize the election is already over and Abe's back to ignoring them and exacerbating ties with NK? They need to wait until his popularity has dropped a few points again before appealing.

By this time (40 years) she's unfortunately either been totally indoctrinated and married a now a "fellow" North Korean, or shot dead upon bravely trying to escape North Korea! It's like hoping for a nuclear free wse anything until the U.S are driven out of righteous Korean land, and North Koreas future is secured with a truce! The U.S should damn well know this. They created it!

"Hoping for a nuclear free world. It's possible, but the great nations including NATO don't give a damn" It's just like that regarding North Korea!

It sounds really harsh and I feel really sorry for these people but I think the best thing to do now for the government is to declare her deceased and give the old people some piece of mind.

After 40 years no new clues or information and seeing we are talking about NK and not a civilized country there likelihood is less than 0% for her to come back. Sad story all around.

have to totally agree with the comments above that are done with the abductee families. please go home and stay away from the tv cameras and ANY GOVT EMPLOYEE. you have been given false hope by the gov't for the past 20 years at least. bury your loved ones now and cherish their memories, but for god's sake stop giving tv interviews and press conferences.

melonbarmonsterToday 07:30 am JSTJapan can get South Korea and US on board to push this issue but unfortunately, it's Japan's own hypocrisy that makes this an impossible issue.

And what did the South Koreans do to deserve having over 400 of their citizens abducted by North Korea?

Pretty heartless and cold comments on here that state they aren’t sympathetic to the family members.

My goodness, they are the only ones who have actually suffered!

The politicians didn’t suffer. They want the job to get their names in the headlines!

The nation didn’t suffer, people still had their beer and dinner as they watched the evening news.

But if you had a family member abducted, kidnapped, tortured and indoctrinated, raped and impregnated, and then finally killed....let me get this straight Sam Watters...YOU are out of sympathy? Are you not a guest in my country? Why does it matter whether or not YOU are out of sympathy. Have some empathy man, one day you will need it from others too.

"But if you had a family member abducted, kidnapped, tortured and indoctrinated, raped and impregnated, and then finally killed....let me get this straight Sam Watters...YOU are out of sympathy? Are you not a guest in my country? Why does it matter whether or not YOU are out of sympathy. Have some empathy man, one day you will need it from others too."

Wow. Where to begin...

"YOU are out of sympathy." Yep. Mr. Yokota should have done more including gone over to NK himself or hired mercenaries or any number of methods of ACTIVELY getting his child back. It's what you do when YOUR CHILD is threatened. Now of course some people will talk about the dangers of going it alone and how experts know better and blah, blah, blah. But when it is YOUR CHILD, you don't weigh the pros and cons like you do when you are buying a car or choosing which onsen to visit. When it is YOUR CHILD you do whatever is necessary to get him or her back. You may lose your job, you may lose your money, hell, you may even lose your life but that is what you do when YOUR CHILD is in danger. At least that's what real parents do.

"Are you not a guest in my country?" Whoa, Dude. Slow down! My answer will assume that you are Japanese or at least have Japanese citizenship (I do, by the way). Anyway, no I am not a guest; I pay taxes, have contributed to society and have taken citizenship. Guests do not pay their own way like I and many others have.

"Why does it matter whether or not YOU are out of sympathy?" It doesn't. It's a comment board. My opinion obviously matters to you, though, or you wouldn't have commented. I would, however, like to know how much tax money is being wasted on this issue because that does affect me and others.

Sorry, folks, the election's over. Abe milked this tragedy when he needed the sympathy votes, but now he's reelected, you're not even going to occur to him again until the next time he's in trouble.

Don't worry, once a new scandal crops up, he'll wheel you out again with his crocodile tears until the scandal loses steam.

Sam Watters

Ok, so you have no more sympathy for the Yokota’s because you feel they as citizens should have done more, like, for example, hire mercenaries?

I suppose that’s a fantastic idea. NK is an ideal place to send hired mercenaries.

History shows us that when citizens are caught up in a political crisis, such as a kidnapping between nations in conflict, the dad and mom should send their army to rescue them.

Anyways I guess yeah I didn’t need to call you out as a foreigner, sorry about that. However if your kidz were kidnapped and after many years people started to say they were tired of hearing about it...well wouldn’t that be the worst thing?

@thepersoniamnow,

“Ok, so you have no more sympathy for the Yokota’s because you feel they as citizens should have done more, like, for example, hire mercenaries?” You are half-correct. I think as PARENTS they should have done more, especially the father. I know Japanese are more passive than Americans as a rule but when we’re talking about your children they should come over culture constraints. Whether the parents are citizens or not is meaningless.

“I suppose that’s a fantastic idea. NK is an ideal place to send hired mercenaries.” That’s What mercenaries do, they go into bad places.

“History shows us that when citizens are caught up in a political crisis, such as a kidnapping between nations in conflict, the dad and mom should send their army to rescue them.” I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic or not so I will assume you are not being sarcastic. Can you cite an example of a country sending In the army to returned kidnapped people? And even if you can, do you really think Japan would do so after decades of doing almost nothing?

“Anyways I guess yeah I didn’t need to call you out as a foreigner, sorry about that.”Not at all! I like passionate debate! No offense taken! (I thumbed you up by the way because not only were you passionate you were courteous as well and that is rare on comment boards.

“However if your kidz were kidnapped and after many years people started to say they were tired of hearing about it...well wouldn’t that be the worst thing?” Well, I would’ve either gotten my son back or died trying long before holding press conferences.

But DNA tests conducted in Japan found the ashes were not hers.

Actually the results were inconclusive, and the Japanese government got criticism from the scientific community at the time for saying that they were.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megumi_Yokota

The U.S should damn well know this. They created it! and how was NK invasion of the Sth in 1950 the US fault. Soviet support of NK was one of the main reasons they invaded and China joined in near the end of the war, if it wasnt for the UN and US involvement in the war NK would have easily annexed SK in 1950.

Sadly The election is over and Abe and the others in gov have already forgotten. Trump had no interest either. The media or the people haven't taken this up as a "cause" except for the political elites to bring it up at the next general election, and to push a political agenda. Sadly I think the parents have been used, promised and given hope only for them to be crushed. Sadly I fear they will probably never see their child again.

Since it's such a timely issue now, perhaps the LDP can form a panel of experts and talk about the best way pledge the best outcome for the families...

Also, at this point - I would say that NK should at least give closure in regards to their loved ones. But unfortunately, if NK makes a statement about them no longer being alive - that will be exactly what Japan and The U.S. want so they have their reason to invade or further bully NK. So, it's obvious as to why NK doesn't talk about the issue.

NK at war with US allies.

What do you expect ?

I still can't imagine why on Earth they would hide those last hostages from others who came back. And let tet the parents meet the grand daughter above that.

She is dead and it is sad.

It is even more sad that politicians use a personal tragedy to push their agenda.

Sam Watters

Fair enough I guess. I just don’t understand the logic of forming your own militia as in general that is illegal or not even feasible.

Its also very American (which I am as well) to get all commando about it.

But in America if someone wrongs me, if I turn up and whoop his ass, the act is celebrated if the other person is truly bad or in the wrong. Here if you do that, you are likely headed for a few nights in the police station without charge.

and how was NK invasion of the Sth in 1950 the US fault. Soviet support of NK was one of the main reasons they invaded and China joined in near the end of the war, if it wasnt for the UN and US involvement in the war NK would have easily annexed SK in 1950.

Umm you do realize it was still KOREA. This whole good guy bad guy shtick gets old pretty fast. If it wasn't for the colonial mindset of the US and russia, we wouldn't be in the predicament. The Korean government would have managed to rise above years of colonial pressure by Japan all on its own.

Anyone who has paid any attention to this issue would know that Megumi Yokota was married following her abduction. And as this article mentioned, had a daughter, who is now 30.

And the Megumi parents met the daughter in Mongolia in 2014 and forgot to ask what happened to her mother.

Are they serious?

the Megumi parents met the daughter in Mongolia in 2014 and forgot to ask what happened to her mother. 

Are they serious?

It seems it's your memory that is failing.

Megumi was married to a South Korean, also abducted as a teenager, and had a daughter, as you say. In 2006 the husband was allowed to meet his family in Pyongyang, at which meeting he reconfirmed the NK claim that Megumi had committed suicide in 1994. (NK didn't admit that it had abducted her until 2002). It was stated by Japan that DNA tests showed that the so-called cremated remains that were sent to Japan could not be those of Megumi. (The fact is that the tests were probably botched...but that doesn't mean NK wasn't lying).

The Yokotas refuse to believe that their daughter committed suicide. They did not 'forget' to ask the daughter about her mother; they believed that the girl, like her father, would be coerced to toe the NK line.

No point in asking Abe or the Japanese government.  What could the J govt be realistically expected to do? Mr & Mrs Yokota are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

They should be contacting the DPRK government directly in every which way they can think of. Going to have to get really imaginative to hope for any fresh movement.