Japanese official kept lid on info about 2 men living in N Korea

Tragic.

Wouldn't the fact that they had hard evidence that two Japanese were in North Korea boost their claims that the North should release all abductees work in their favor? Why did they fear a negative backlash? Were they afraid people would blame them for not doing enough a long time ago? We all know that is the truth.

The end of 2019 is turning out to be quite ugly for PM Abe. Everyday, another scandal appears, and he seems helpless to stop them. Lets hope 2020 he will take his leave and we get a new and better gov't.

listed him as one of more than 800 people that may have been abducted by North Korea.

800? The first time I have come across that figure.

gary

800 is a stupidly HUGE number, I agree, but I think the number of abducted South Koreans is even higher.

Way to go J-govt...…….NOT!!!!

Classic. All the time pretending they care about the families and then for reasons of propaganda hiding this information for 5 years.

disgusting. Only this should be enough for Abe to step down

Why this is still an issue? Perhaps the two persons don't want to go back to Japan! They like living in North Korea, this is nothing strange!

Further proof that Abe has shamelessly been playing politics with this issue for years.

How would NK operate Vienna, not plausible, like plane from Austria fly regular to NK

I'm not sure where the '800' comes from, but I guess they include ethnic Koreans who may have gone to Korea without notifying the Japanese government (probably didn't have a passport at the time anyway).

Japanese people prefers N.Korea to Japan, maybe more Japanese should move there automatically and help build a new economy.

garymalmgrenToday  08:45 am JST

listed him as one of more than 800 people that may have been abducted by North Korea.

800? The first time I have come across that figure.

"In addition to the 17 Japanese citizens already identified as having been abducted by North Korea, the possibility of abduction by North Korea cannot be ruled out for 883 other missing persons (as of October 1, 2018). The GoJ has been conducting information gathering and investigation activities both in Japan and overseas."

https://www.rachi.go.jp/en/p-en2019.pdf

YrralToday  11:57 am JST

How would NK operate Vienna, not plausible, like plane from Austria fly regular to NK

"North Korean abductions have not been limited to northeast Asia and many documented abductees have been kidnapped while abroad, such as Mr. Lee Chae-hwan, a young MIT graduate student traveling in Austria, and Mr. Ko Sang-moon, a South Korean teacher kidnapped in Norway, making the issue of serious concern to the international community; 

Whereas there have been credible reports that North Korea may have abducted citizens from many other countries in addition to South Korea and Japan, including persons from China, Europe, and the Middle East; "

"on April 5, 1971, North Korean agents abducted Yu Song-gun, a South Korean diplomat stationed at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in West Germany, his wife, and two young daughters, ages 7 and 1, while the family was believed to be in Berlin; "

http://www.sukuukai.jp/narkn/

OssanAmerica: ""In addition to the 17 Japanese citizens already identified as having been abducted by North Korea, the possibility of abduction by North Korea cannot be ruled out for 883 other missing persons (as of October 1, 2018). The GoJ has been conducting information gathering and investigation activities both in Japan and overseas."

Thanks for posting this, Ossan. I've stated this time and again, and the only smart thing the Japanese government has ever done with this situation is to not officially announce more than 17, especially since every now and again a person on this nationalist list of supposed "abductees" has simply run away from their family and is alive and well in Japan, with a new family

"For 35 years, nothing was officially heard of Saito, whose name and personal details were posted on a website operated by the National Police Agency. The list contained the names of no fewer than 880 Japanese nationals whose disappearance authorities believed could be linked to North Korea.

In April 2018, however, a body was discovered and police have since been able to confirm that it is that of Saito. Citing personal privacy laws, the authorities have declined to confirm where the body was discovered, how the victim died, or why it took them so long to confirm its identity.

The discovery has raised questions about the accuracy of the government's list of Japanese it believes were taken against their will to North Korea, and whether the 879 people presently on the list met their fate much closer to home."

As it turns out, these two are actually alive and well in Pyongyang, but the reason the government won't put it out is because they are happy there and have no intention of coming back. That doesn't fit the ability of the Abe government to milk the issue for political points every time his popularity drops (about 25 times a year he meets the abductees kin to vow to resolve the issue).