ID :
45150
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 21:26
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/45150
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Ex-agent, abductee kin to meet soon: S. Korea foreign minister+
SEOUL, Feb. 11 Kyodo -
A meeting between a former North Korean agent now in South Korea and family
members of a Japanese woman abducted by the North will soon be realized, South
Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung Hwan said Wednesday.
''It's my understanding that the meeting will be held before long,'' Yu said of
the arrangements which, if realized, may provide a clue to the fate of missing
abductee Yaeko Taguchi, who was taken in 1978 and is believed to have been made
to teach Japanese to the agent, Kim Hyon Hui.
Yu, who made the remarks in response to a reporter's question at a press
conference after his talks in Seoul with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi
Nakasone, stopped short of giving further details but said arrangements are
under way.
The decision by the conservative government of President Lee Myung Bak to
openly help organize such a meeting contrasts with the reluctance by its
liberal predecessors to do so out of fears of upsetting North Korea.
Yu informed Nakasone of the matter at the end of their 70-minute talks, the
Japanese minister told reporters later in the evening. But when asked when and
where the meeting will be held, Nakasone said, ''I will not comment on that
here.''
But Nakasone acknowledged that given the strong wishes by the family members,
the Japanese government has been asking Seoul for its help in arranging the
meeting.
''We appreciate the efforts on the part of the (South Korean) government to
materialize this kind of meeting between the two,'' Foreign Ministry Press
Secretary Kazuo Kodama, who accompanied Nakasone at the talks, said in a
separate press conference.
Kim, who was sentenced to death for the 1987 fatal bombing of a South Korean
airliner but later freed under a presidential pardon, is believed to have
received Japanese language lessons from Taguchi during her agent training in
North Korea.
Both Kim and the family members of Taguchi have expressed hopes for such a
meeting.
In Japan, Shigeo Iizuka, Taguchi's older brother, said, ''Holding such a
meeting has a significant impact'' on helping resolve the abduction issue.
Iizuka, 70, also said at his home in Saitama Prefecture that he believes
arrangements for the meeting will be made in about two weeks.
Iizuka, who also serves as head of a group of families of Japanese victims of
abduction in the 1970s and 1980s, made the comments after he was briefed by a
Japanese Foreign Ministry official about the outcome of the foreign ministers'
meeting.
Taguchi is among at least a dozen Japanese victims of North Korea's abductions
who remain missing, according to the Japanese government. North Korea admitted
to abducting her but says she died in 1986, a claim Japan disputes.
==Kyodo
2009-02-11 23:16:24
A meeting between a former North Korean agent now in South Korea and family
members of a Japanese woman abducted by the North will soon be realized, South
Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung Hwan said Wednesday.
''It's my understanding that the meeting will be held before long,'' Yu said of
the arrangements which, if realized, may provide a clue to the fate of missing
abductee Yaeko Taguchi, who was taken in 1978 and is believed to have been made
to teach Japanese to the agent, Kim Hyon Hui.
Yu, who made the remarks in response to a reporter's question at a press
conference after his talks in Seoul with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi
Nakasone, stopped short of giving further details but said arrangements are
under way.
The decision by the conservative government of President Lee Myung Bak to
openly help organize such a meeting contrasts with the reluctance by its
liberal predecessors to do so out of fears of upsetting North Korea.
Yu informed Nakasone of the matter at the end of their 70-minute talks, the
Japanese minister told reporters later in the evening. But when asked when and
where the meeting will be held, Nakasone said, ''I will not comment on that
here.''
But Nakasone acknowledged that given the strong wishes by the family members,
the Japanese government has been asking Seoul for its help in arranging the
meeting.
''We appreciate the efforts on the part of the (South Korean) government to
materialize this kind of meeting between the two,'' Foreign Ministry Press
Secretary Kazuo Kodama, who accompanied Nakasone at the talks, said in a
separate press conference.
Kim, who was sentenced to death for the 1987 fatal bombing of a South Korean
airliner but later freed under a presidential pardon, is believed to have
received Japanese language lessons from Taguchi during her agent training in
North Korea.
Both Kim and the family members of Taguchi have expressed hopes for such a
meeting.
In Japan, Shigeo Iizuka, Taguchi's older brother, said, ''Holding such a
meeting has a significant impact'' on helping resolve the abduction issue.
Iizuka, 70, also said at his home in Saitama Prefecture that he believes
arrangements for the meeting will be made in about two weeks.
Iizuka, who also serves as head of a group of families of Japanese victims of
abduction in the 1970s and 1980s, made the comments after he was briefed by a
Japanese Foreign Ministry official about the outcome of the foreign ministers'
meeting.
Taguchi is among at least a dozen Japanese victims of North Korea's abductions
who remain missing, according to the Japanese government. North Korea admitted
to abducting her but says she died in 1986, a claim Japan disputes.
==Kyodo
2009-02-11 23:16:24
