Japanese Abduction Victims Must Be Alive: Ex-N. Korea Agent

Tokyo, July 22 (Jiji Press)--Former North Korean agent Kim Hyon Hui, in meeting with nine family members of Japanese citizens abducted to the reclusive state, has said the abductees are still alive and encouraged the relatives to have hopes, participants in the meeting said Thursday.

Teruaki Masumoto, 54, a younger brother of Rumiko Masumoto, a
Japanese woman kidnapped to North Korea in 1978 at the age of 24, told a
press conference that Kim was quoted as saying that North Korea does not
execute foreigners and treats them with respect.
Kim told the meeting it is highly likely that North Korea pretends
that Japanese abduction victims are already dead, according to Masumoto,
head of head of an association of family members whose relatives were taken
to North Korea.
Kim said that North Korea is an incoherent country and may say
something about the fate of abduction victims, Masumoto said. Kim said that
Tokyo needs to prompt Pyongyang to say something with a well-designed
strategy, according to Masumoto.
One day in June-August 1984, when she learned Chinese from a woman
that North Korea spies snatched from Macau, Kim saw Megumi Yokota, a
Japanese female abducted in 1977 at the age of 13, according to Tsutomu
Nishioka, 54-year-old head of a support group for Japanese abductees.
Nishioka said that Kim told the participants that she apologized
for being quiet about the fate of Megumi Yokota 23 years ago, when she was
arrested for the bombing of a Korean Air jetliner.
Kim said that she was not courageous enough to say something about
Megumi Yokota because she took into account her former colleague that Megumi
taught Japanese.
Kayoko Arimoto, 84, mother of Keiko Arimoto, a Japanese woman
abducted in 1983 at the age of 23 in Europe, said that Kim tried to do
something helpful for us, adding that she cast gentle eyes to us. Arimoto
sat next to Kim at the meeting.
Kim, who arrived in Japan on Tuesday, also met with government
officials on Thursday evening. She will return South Korea on Friday.
Kim was sentenced to death in South Korea in 1989 for the 1987
jetliner bombing that killed over 110 people onboard over the Indian Ocean,
but was granted a special pardon later. Since the arrest, she has been
living in South Korea.