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N Korea abductees' families urge Suga for help; North says issue resolved

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My prediction is that more people here will take the side of North Korea, a cauldron of human rights violations, than Japan's.

Sickening.

If North Korea won't be more professional and forthcoming instead of being flippant, how do they expect to get anything from Japan?

Moronic.

-19 ( +4 / -23 )

Suga, who took office on Sept 16, said his new government will do all they can to bring the victims back, a stance inherited from the previous administration under Shinzo Abe.

PM Suga could do no worse than Abe.

Abe, when in power, was described by Pyongyang as “an idiot and a villain” which shows that maybe Suga could revitalize the non-relationship currently in evidence...

2 ( +4 / -2 )

"Japan officially lists 17 people as having been abducted by North Korea with five already repatriated in 2002. But Pyongyang maintains that the abduction issue has already been resolved, saying eight died, including Yokota's daughter, and that the other four never entered the country."

I've asked this before and will again: The default assumption here among supporters of the Japanese government's stance on this issue, it seems, is that the North Korean government in 2002 decided to tell the truth about 5 of the abductees (i.e. that they were alive and well and living in North Korea) while lying about the 12 others.

North Korea's leaders are terrible and cruel, but they are far from irrational. What would have been rational about telling the truth regarding 5 of the abductees listed while lying about the 12 others back in 2002?

10 ( +14 / -4 )

@oldman_13

My prediction is that more people here will take the side of North Korea, a cauldron of human rights violations, than Japan's.

Sickening.

Your lack of confidence / self esteem,

negative view is quite consistent.

Anyone who stand other than you or Japan is “anti-japan”.

You always start with down /up vote. Why do you care so much? You shouldn’t care if you are confident.

14 ( +18 / -4 )

To use the same rhetoric that is always rolled out when South Koreans protest something.

North Korea considers the issue closed. They're all dead. Why can't Japan get over it? It's pathetic and embarrassing that the government is so focused on this issue that happened so long ago. Japan should focus on fixing their own issues instead of playing the constant victim.

11 ( +17 / -6 )

Yes, it's a dead issue, but if it were your child, you would never stop trying.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

North Korea considers the issue closed. They're all dead. Why can't Japan get over it? It's pathetic and embarrassing that the government is so focused on this issue that happened so long ago. Japan should focus on fixing their own issues instead of playing the constant victim.

I tend to agree with you, however, I think most of the families believe what you just said, but they want closure at this point and I think we all would want that. Keeping hope is a very positive thing and it motivates you to keep going mentally and emotionally. I don't think if anyone of us were in their positions would want the government to stop looking for our lost loved ones, I wouldn't, couldn't and my folks wouldn't give up on us either. If NK would be honest and forthcoming as to what happened to these people they could get the closure they need to move on, but if they can't and as they get older, they will continue to press the government until the end.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

This was an Abe pledge to resolve, and over his 8 years ended with further distancing from resolution. I feel for the families it's disgraceful that the abductees have had to live a life not wanted, died in a country that held them captive. North Korea is ruled by physocpaths it's impossible to reason with them, Japan's leadership is inept and don't understand how to deal with anyone who doesn't acknowledge their right to rule.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Suga, do the right thing!!!

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Is there an election in the offing? These sad people tend to be taken out of the closet and paraded around whenever the LDP needs a boost in the polls.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

dead matter

Suga has nothing to play with unless hes willing to give a massive foreign package to NK

NK knows this and is just playing along to see how far Japan will concede

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Kim Jong Il did hand over the list of abductees in its entirety back in 2002.

This issue is closed.

Japan needs to reopen investigation on missing persons not on North Korea's abductee list as their bodies are located somewhere in Japan.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Those abductees probably already dead long ago and the north might not even be able to locate the remains, which is why they are refusing to bring this issue up again. If North Korea is not willing to negotiate, chances are high they don't have them in hands. Usually if North Korea has something good in hand, they can make deals or trade for something in return. The fact that they actually choose to be hostile even though there is such a great opportunity to repair relationship, already told us what the fate of those abductees are.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

To the abductees families I would say “I’m sorry, your children are most likely gone.”

And N. Korea doesn’t get to say when it’s over. They were the abductors.

They were the ones who sent bones back that were not only not the person in question, they were the wrong gender.

Japan says when it’s over. Until then, N. Korea gets nothing

1 ( +4 / -3 )

So many heartless comments...

I'm sure they'd feel very differently if it were **their relatives who got kidnapped.**

I expected a bit of sympathy for the victims' families here but looks like it's in short supply.

Japan doesn't have much of a bargaining chip to start with. NK won't listen to anything unless you hurt them in some way.

Economic sanctions seem to be the only solution.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Economic sanctions seem to be the only solution.

May I ask what sanctions Japan can take?There is ZERO trade between North Korea and Japan. Not a solution at all.

The only solution going forward is the threat of military action by a coalition of willing, if the Kim Dynasry does not return the abductees.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Many people are missing in Japan!

Why is it always North Korea that is at fault?

Abductions occur here by Japanese of Japanese...

5 ( +7 / -2 )

So many heartless comments...

I'm sure they'd feel very differently if it were ***their* relatives who got kidnapped.**

Well that's exactly WHY there is such little sympathy. AND when we do bring up the fact you stated above, we are told by moderators and other posters alike that the connection is only in our minds

LOL

>

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Japan needs to reopen investigation on missing persons not on North Korea's abductee list as their bodies are located somewhere in Japan.

Agreed! Japan needs to start looking at itself to find out what happened to these so called "abductees", it's certain these were just domestic crimes committed by Japanese themselves. Absolutely pathetic!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

If the 8 are dead then at least pass over their remains to their families (which they might not be able to do if they are in a mass grave) so they can have some closure. The 4 that were "never" in NK we will need to assume that their disappearance is unsolved.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The kidnapping of nationals, to what purpose, by NK being completely bizarre. Proof that Kim Jong-il was divorced from any grounded reality. 

The weirdest being the kidnapping of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, in Hong Kong, a Korean actress on the downslide and later her ex-husband, a director, who had been unable to find financing for his films. The intent to develop a film industry in North Korea. Choi Eun-hee was kidnapped in order to lure her husband Shin Sang-ok to Hong Kong in order to abduct him, Shin Sang-ok being the actual target. They later escaped, while in Vienna, having spent 8 years in NK.

The supposed purport, to develop spies, poses the question: spying for what reason, there is not one that passes any manner of litmus test.

An interesting article detailing the abductions and centered on one of the abductees: Kaoru Hasuike, who was returned to Japan, with his wife Yukiko Okudo after almost 25 years in NK. As a young couple they were kidnapped on the beach by North Korean agents.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/north-koreas-abduction-project

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sadly I do not believe there are any abductees left to return to Japan. This issue is as resolved as it will ever be and all attempts to find more will get the same result. Continuing to push what is already finished achieves nothing but further heartbreak and bad relations. At some point there must be acceptance and closure.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Some supposed North Korean abductees were found alive in Japan. If the little girl that went missing at that campsite last year had gone missing in 1979, the government would blame North Korea at this stage, having no leads.

Also, North Korea is a mess and could not keep track of an elephant so some abductees are simply lost with no trace possible. Others decided they did not want to reunite and live voluntarily in North Korea. And yes, one or two might be simply covered up still by North Korea. That North Korea ever let some repatriate is in itself a miracle.

But the fact is the end of the road was reached years ago. The politicians only keep this alive for theater. To pretend they are working for the people when they know they are only going through motions. In fact, these politicians are only abusing the families for their own political gain. This nonsense is wasting time, spirit, tax money and web page space.

Besides which, if the families had any sense, they would have long ago stopped appealing to the useless government and instead pooled their resources to privately hire spies and mercenaries.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

What little rocket fattie didn’t learn as a schoolboy in Switzerland he will of course not learn now within his NK borders, in that big brainwashed commie psychiatry.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"That North Korea ever let some repatriate is in itself a miracle."

North Korea never agreed to let the 5 living abductees repatriate to Japan in 2002. The original agreement was that the 5 would be able to temporarily visit Japan before going back to North Korea where their children were still living. But then the Japanese government reneged on that agreement once the 5 were in Japan, and declared that they would never go back to North Korea. The children of the abductees were later brought to Japan in 2004 after Tokyo gave Pyongyang cash and food aid.

Now, you may think that it was right for the Japanese government to renege on that original agreement with despotic North Korea regarding the 5 abductees. But doing that in 2002 really wrecked any chances of further drawing North Korea's regime out of its isolation and ending its overt hostility to Japan.

"Japan says when it’s over. Until then, N. Korea gets nothing"

I suppose this is the attitude of the Yokota family and that's understandable. But think about what this really means: For Japan, the abductee issue won't be over until regime change occurs in North Korea. It's been decided in Tokyo that there is no way to trust the Kim Dynasty. But regime change in North Korea as Japan would like to see it won't occur unless the U.S. military invades North Korea like it invaded Iraq in 2003 and topples the government. But you know what? That will never happen because North Korea has nuclear weapons and the 2003 invasion of Iraq resulted in such a debacle that the U.S. lost all credibility as an agent of positive regime change in an authoritarian country.

The only result of Japan's hardline attitude on this matter, rooted in the bizarre belief that Kim Jong Il in 2002 decided to tell the truth about 5 abductees but lie about the 12 others, is that North Korea unintentionally succeeded in driving a wedge between Japan and South Korea.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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