Some 800 Rally in Tokyo Demanding North Korea Return All Abductees at Once: Takaichi Vows a Breakthrough in Her Term and Offers to Meet Kim Jong Un
TOKYO — A national rally demanding that North Korea return all Japanese abductees immediately and at once was held in Tokyo on November 8, drawing about 800 people, including abductees' family members and local officials. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attended and addressed the rally, saying her determination to break through and resolve the abduction issue during her term remains unchanged.
Takaichi said it had been a year since her cabinet was formed and that she was deeply saddened the abductees had still not come home; with victims and their families ageing, she said, the issue must be resolved without delay. Her mission, she said, will not end until families can embrace their loved ones, and she repeated her wish, as Japan's prime minister, to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for frank, direct talks, with Japan continuing to work on the basis of the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration.
Takaichi also said she had once again received the full support of U.S. President Donald Trump. Japan appealed at the U.N. General Assembly in September for international help on the issue and has sought U.S. mediation toward Japan-North Korea dialogue. Families at the rally stressed the urgency of time: Megumi Yokota, abducted in Niigata City in 1977 at the age of 13, is among the most closely watched of the people Japan recognises as abductees.
Japan officially lists 17 nationals as having been abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Five returned in 2002 after then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi met Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in the first Japan-North Korea summit; the fate of the others remains unknown. Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations, and the abduction issue has long been among the most sensitive questions between them.
(Source: Kyodo News)
Source: Kyodo News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：日本首相高市早苗官方肖像（日本内阁广报室，CC BY 4.0），经 Wikimedia Commons；其外套上的浅蓝色丝带是日本绑架问题意识活动的象征。 / Photo: Official portrait of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (Cabinet Public Affairs Office, Japan, CC BY 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons; the light-blue ribbon on her jacket is the symbol of awareness of the abduction issue in Japan.
