Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga pledged on Tuesday to make every effort to ensure the return of all Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga pledged on Tuesday to make every effort to ensure the return of all Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
On Tuesday afternoon, Suga, who also serves as the minister for the abduction issue, met with Shigeo Iizuka, the head of the abductees' families association, and Tetsuo Ando, the chair of the Sukuukai Miyagi group lobbying the prompt resolution of the issue, at the prime minister's residence.
According to the NHK broadcaster, Ando handed over a petition signed by more than 70,000 people urging the speedy return of the abductees that had been collected over the past 10 years in Japan's northern Miyagi prefecture.
"Your petition activities will become an important impetus for resolving the problem. With the thoughts contained in each stroke and the thoughts of each victim's family members firmly taken into account, I pledge to do my best so that every single abduction victim could return home," Suga said, as quoted by the broadcaster.
According to Tokyo, 17 Japanese nationals were abducted by North Korean security in the 1970s and 1980s, and about 900 more disappeared under circumstances that could potentially involve North Korea's actions. Pyongyang recognized 13 instances of kidnapping Japanese citizens, five of whom were returned to Japan and the remaining eight died. It is believed that some of these Japanese citizens were abducted for the purpose of obtaining their identities, which were then used by North Korean penetration agents in South Korea. Other victims allegedly taught the Japanese language to North Korean intelligence personnel.
