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Koizumi to pick up abductee kin in Pyongyang
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-10 14:41
North Korea asked Japan several times in March and April for Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi to travel to Pyongyang to pick up relatives of Japanese
abductees living there, government sources said Sunday.
North Korea told Japan it is prepared to return eight relatives of the five
Japanese abducted to North Korea and repatriated to Japan in October 2002 if
Koizumi goes to pick them up, the sources said.
Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi enters his official residence in Tokyo May 7,
2004. [Reuters] | North Korea told Japan it wants to resolve pending issues with Japan by
holding top-level talks in accordance with the Pyongyang declaration signed by
Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during Koizumi's landmark visit to
North Korea in September 2002.
Japan unofficially proposed Koizumi pay another visit to Pyongyang at
bilateral talks held in Beijing on May 4-5 and the two countries are expected to
resume negotiations soon to fix a date for Koizumi's trip, they said.
However, there is caution over the visit within the Japanese government and
the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
They say other pending issues, including determining the facts behind the
abductions by North Korea and North Korea's missile program, should be resolved
prior to the visit.
The fates of 10 other Japanese nationals Japan believes were abducted by
North Korea remain unclear.
According to the sources, North Korea conveyed its intention to allow the
relatives to be reunited with their families in Japan if Koizumi visits North
Korea.
After receiving the messages from Pyongyang, Taku Yamasaki, former vice
president of the LDP, proposed sending high-ranking government officials,
including the premier if necessary, to North Korea to pick up the relatives.
He made the proposal to North Korean officials in China in early April.
The five abductees were abducted by North Korean agents in three separate
cases in 1978, and were finally allowed to return to Japan in October 2002.
Their return came a month after Koizumi made a landmark trip to Pyongyang for
summit talks with Kim. They signed the Pyongyang declaration, in which they
agreed to resume negotiations on normalization of diplomatic ties.
The five abductees left seven North Korean-born children and the American
husband of one of the abductees behind when whey returned in October 2002 from
24 years of captivity in the North. Four of the abductees who were allowed to
return to Japan were couples.
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