Megumi’s parents talk 40 years after N. Korea abduction：The Asahi Shimbun

Megumi’s parents talk 40 years after N. Korea abduction：The Asahi Shimbun




Megumi’s parents talk 40 years after N. Korea abduction

By DAISUKE SHIMIZU/ Staff Writer

November 15, 2017 at 18:20 JST

Megumi Yokota's parents, Sakie and Shigeru, enter a room Nov. 15 to begin a news conference, 40 years after their daughter was snatched by North Korean agents. (Takayuki Kakuno)


KAWASAKI--To mark 40 years to the day since 13-year-old Megumi Yokota was abducted by North Korean agents, her now elderly parents held a news conference at their home here and urged the Japanese government to continue fighting for the release of their daughter as well as other victims.

“We are just a normal old man and woman now. It is strange how it takes such a long time (to get her back)," said Megumi's 81-year-old mother Sakie. "I want to see her even only for an hour so I can say, ‘Look, it's my daughter.’"

Megumi's father, 85-year-old Shigeru, who now finds it difficult to speak clearly, sat silently next to his wife, reflecting the fact that he has not appeared in public for a while due to health reasons.

“We maybe won't live for so much longer, but we are not ending this issue without solving it," her mother said. "We cannot just say, ‘It happened in the past.’ I want her to be released as soon as possible.”

The couple's daughter was abducted by North Korean agents on her journey home after a junior high school badminton club activity on Nov. 15, 1977, in Niigata, which lies on the Sea of Japan coast facing North Korea. She was a first-year student.

“We have worried about the safety of our child for 40 years. Our lives have been packed with trouble. I don’t know why she can’t be rescued after such a long time as she is held in a nearby country,” said Sakie.

“I don’t want to remember the moment (she was abducted). It makes me shiver,” the mother added.

Sakie said of the Japanese government: “If the issue is just forgotten and our whole lives come to an end, international society will think that Japan is a country which cannot do anything and cannot save anyone. Japan should put whole effort into it and save these victims.”

There was a major turning point in the abduction issue in 2002 when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a landmark visit to Pyongyang that September. Koizumi met with Kim Jong Il who acknowledged that North Korea had abducted 13 Japanese citizens, including Megumi, and contended that eight of them had died.

Since then, Megumi’s parents have held about 100 meetings each year throughout Japan to highlight the abduction issue.

If she is still alive, Megumi would now be 53. Sakie commented, “I want her to be fine and not sick. We get weaker due to old age, but we will continue trying hard to come to terms with the situation."

She added: “The U.S. president (Donald Trump) took time to meet us, and at the U.N. General Assembly he referred to the abduction issue. I want to say to North Korea that we all will be happy if the victims are returned.”