Issue:
May 2024
Pressure is building to resolve North Korea’s abductions
In the 1970s and 1980s, North Korean agents abducted at least 17 Japanese nationals, igniting the enduring rachi mondai – the abduction issue. The abductions cut deeply into the Japanese psyche and continue to evoke a profound sense of loss and injustice.
In 2002, five of these individuals were allowed to return to Japan. Megumi Yokota, just 13 years old at the time she was taken, was not among them. Her disappearance in 1977, while walking home from school in her hometown on the Japan Sea coast, marked the beginning of her family’s long ordeal.
North Korea claims Megumi took her own life in 1994, but the issue is far from settled in the eyes of her family and many in her home country. In a move that did little to quell the skepticism, North Korea handed over what they claimed were Megumi’s remains in 2004. The family, driven by hope and distrust, called for a DNA test from the Japanese government. Inconclusive results left room for belief that Megumi may still be alive.
“My father never gave up hope of seeing Megumi again before he died in 2020. Now, with our mother Sakie at 88, we’re running out of time,” Takuya Yokota, Megumi’s younger brother, said recently at the FCCJ. He wants Japanese officials to sit across from their North Korean counterparts to negotiate the abductees’ return.
As representative of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, Yokota and his group have expressed a conditional openness to Japanese humanitarian assistance or sanctions relief for North Korea, provided that all abductees are returned while their parents are still alive. The group personally relayed their desire to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in March.
Yokota delivered a clear message to both leaders. “I hope Prime Minister Kishida tells Kim Jong-un that resolving humanitarian issues could brighten the future for Japan and North Korea.” He followed with a direct appeal: “We hope Chairman Kim Jong-un makes a wise and brave choice.”
Yokota was critical of his country’s negotiation strategy, noting that merging the abduction issue with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program into a single “package” for talks had not yielded results, while the families of the victims grow older.
Yokota advocated discussing the two issues separately. “We’ve conveyed this to both the Japanese government and the North Korean side as well,” he said.
Earlier this year, hints emerged that Japan and North Korea could be planning direct talks. Hopes were raised that the embattled Kishida might emulate Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who secured the return of several abductees two decades ago after a summit in Pyongyang with the then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
But hopes for a second summit were dashed when Kim Yo-jong, the influential younger sister of Kim Jong-un, rejected “any and all” dialogue with Japan. She signalled that the North is intent on leaving the past behind rather than engaging with Japan over the unresolved abductions.
North Korea, meanwhile, forges ahead with weapons tests and aggressive posturing in defiance of the UN security council, with the notable exceptions of China and Russia. The regime in Pyongyang insists that its weapons program is a non-negotiable guarantor of the country’s sovereignty and survival.
Jaechun Kim, an international relations expert at Sogang University in Seoul, believes that while there is the potential for compromise at a summit, the North wields more leverage. “Prime Minister Kishida faces domestic pressures,” Kim told the Number 1 Shimbun. “Omitting the weapons issue would disillusion U.S. and South Korean allies and sidestepping the abduction issue would deeply disappoint the Japanese people.”
North Korea’s ability to track down the abductees and return them —or their remains—to their families in Japan remains in doubt. Even if that were possible, would it bring this painful chapter to a close? On top of that, the actual number of abductees is believed to be much higher than North Korea has officially admitted. What of the additional victims?
Megumi’s photograph, taken and circulated by North Korea after she was snatched, has become symbolic of the abduction issue - a haunting reminder of those who are still unaccounted for.
Takuya Yokota is uncertain of how long after her abduction the photo was taken, as well as the details of her disappearance from her home in Niigata prefecture in November 1977. “I encourage anything from North Korea to be looked at with skepticism,” he said.
Megumi’s attire in the photo – including a clean white shirt – implies it wasn’t taken in the immediate aftermath of her abduction. A North Korean agent who later defected described a disturbing scene upon her forced arrival at a North Korean port, with Megumi desperately begging for freedom, her fingers bloodied from repeated attempts to escape confinement. That image is starkly different from her apparently calm demeanour in the photo. “Their intention was to show that Megumi wasn’t harmed,” her brother said.
He added: “I have never, ever seen this sad expression on my sister’s face. I ask that you think of her as you would a member of your own family. What would you feel needs to be done if it were your own child who was in such despair?”
Anthony Trotter, a multi-role journalist and cameraman at ABC News, is committed to clear and accurate reporting. Beyond the lens, Anthony practices Aikido, integrating its principles of discipline and harmony into his life. "In every story, a thread of truth weaves through the noise.” He is secretary of the current FCCJ Board of Directors.
