Resolving the abductions of Japanese by North Korea a race against time

All-out efforts to keep resolution alive

Suga is no stranger to the abductions issue. While he was Chief Cabinet Secretary, Suga served as Minister in Charge of the Abduction Issue from October 2018 to September 2020 – until he became Prime Minister. Suga has raised the issue at every diplomatic opportunity, including bilateral and multilateral forums.

In a videotaped address to the UN General Assembly on September 25, Suga stressed that urgently resolving the abductions issue was crucial because the families of the abductees are aging and also for East Asian security. “Japan seeks to normalize its relationship with North Korea, in accordance with the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration, through comprehensively resolving the outstanding issues of concern such as the abductions, nuclear and missile issues, as well as settlement of the unfortunate past,” he said. “Establishing a constructive relationship between Japan and North Korea will not only serve the interests of both sides but will also greatly contribute to regional peace and stability.”

Declaration signed in Pyongyang on September 17, 2002, at a summit meeting between then Japanese Prime Minister KOIZUMI Junichiro and now-deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The declaration said: “Both leaders confirmed the shared recognition that establishing a fruitful political, economic and cultural relationship between Japan and the DPRK through the settlement of unfortunate past between them and the outstanding issues of concern would be consistent with the fundamental interests of both sides, and would greatly contribute to the peace and stability of the region.”

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Suga also raised the abductions issue when he visited Vietnam and Indonesia in mid-October on his first overseas tour as Prime Minister. Suga sought cooperation on this issue from Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

The Government of Japan has identified 17 Japanese abduction victims, and there are more than 800 missing Japanese for whom the possibility of abduction by North Korea cannot be ruled out. Five officially identified Japanese victims returned to Japan in 2002 following then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s admission that his country had abducted them. North Korea claims eight of the 12 other officially identified victims have died and that four never entered its territory. Pyongyang has since insisted the issue is closed.

North Korea released five abductees on October 15, 2002, after then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitted during the summit meeting earlier that year with then Prime Minister KOIZUMI Junichiro that several Japanese had been abducted. Released were CHIMURA Yasushi and his wife, Fukie; HASUIKE Kaoru and his wife, Yukiko; and SOGA Hitomi, who were all abducted in 1978. Soga’s mother, Miyoshi, was also abducted but her whereabouts remain unknown.

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In the video released in mid-October, Suga said international cooperation is essential for bringing all the abductees home as soon as possible. “To resolve the abductions issue, we will continue to work closely with countries, beginning with the United States, Australia and the European Union, which sent us messages this time,” he said.

In recent years, the Government of Japan has cosponsored – with the United States, Australia and the European Union – a symposium on the abductions issue at the United Nations headquarters in New York each May. This year’s symposium could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the video was compiled as part of efforts to raise awareness of the issue in the international community. The video features messages from the families of the victims; David Stilwell, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Department of State; Richard Court, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Australia to Japan; and Patricia Flor, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the European Union to Japan. Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, who has moderated the symposiums, also sent a message.

International cooperation is a must

Resolving the abductions issue requires an international perspective because there are indications that North Korea abducted citizens from South Korea, Thailand, Lebanon, Romania and other nations. Moreover, North Korea has been accused of committing gross human rights violations. The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report on human rights violations in North Korea said the “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” in many instances entailed “crimes against humanity based on state policies.” The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights violations for 13 consecutive years. The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution for 15 consecutive years, condemning “the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in and by” North Korea.

The administration of US President Donald Trump, which had sought negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear arsenal, expressed support for Japan on the abductions issue. “The United States stands with our ally Japan, with abductee families and with the international community in pressing for a resolution for this issue at the earliest possible opportunity, including the return of any abducted Japanese citizens alive in North Korea,” David Stilwell said in the video. “We have pressed the DPRK on this at the highest levels.” Trump repeatedly raised the abductions issue with Kim at their summit meetings.

North Korea, on the other hand, has repeatedly insisted the abductions issue is closed. As recently as October 5, 2020, North Korea rejected a call for the immediate release of Japanese abductees made by KIMURA Tetsuya, Ambassador, Economic, Social and United Nations Management Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly.

Rocky path to negotiations

“More than anything else, North Korea wants economic cooperation from Japan after bilateral diplomatic relations have been normalized,” Nanzan University Professor HIRAIWA Shunji, an expert on North Korean affairs, told The Yomiuri Shimbun daily newspaper. “Pyongyang believes that normalized relations with Japan are necessary for building a lasting and stable regime, in a broad sense, in East Asia.” “North Korea is facing severe economic conditions due to UN economic sanctions (imposed for its nuclear and missile programs), limited trade volume with China because of the COVID-19 pandemic and (typhoon-triggered) flooding. Of course, it desperately wants to escape from this predicament.”

Hiraiwa said the global framework pressing North Korea to change its behavior, including UN economic sanctions, is based on the international community’s demand that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear and missile development programs. “Consequently, how the abductions issue unfolds is interlocked with the nuclear and missile issues, which makes it difficult for Japan to take unilateral action to pursue the release of abductees in return for economic assistance to North Korea,” Hiraiwa said. “It is essential that Japan closely coordinates with the United States if it wants to strike a delicate balance between pursuing settlement of the abductions issue and demanding North Korea give up its nuclear and missile programs.”

However, it remains to be seen what policy President-elect Joe Biden will take toward North Korea. As a Democrat, Biden will likely focus on North Korea’s human rights record, Hiraiwa added.

Anguish grips families of Japanese abductees

International efforts pressuring Pyongyang to release people it abducted are continuing. However, some of the victims’ relatives have died without seeing their loved ones again. Two high-profile family members died in 2020: YOKOTA Shigeru, whose daughter, Megumi, was 13 when she was abducted in 1977, died aged 87 on June 5; and ARIMOTO Kayoko, whose daughter, Keiko, was abducted in 1983, died aged 94 on February 3. Yokota had been instrumental in Japan’s efforts to secure the release of Japanese abductees.

“Since the five abductees came home in 2002, not a single abductee has returned to Japan,” KATO Katsunobu, Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister in Charge of the Abduction Issue, said in the video. “It is deeply disgraceful. The families of abductees have been waiting for their loved ones’ return for many years. I have met with the families many times and heard about their long years of suffering and sadness. I am deeply sorry that I have not been able to meet the longing of the families of abductees who want their loved ones to return as soon as possible.”

The Government of Japan has firmly stood by abductees’ families. On September 29, only two weeks after his inauguration as Prime Minister, Suga met these families to express his condolences on the deaths of Yokota and Arimoto and his determination to bring the abductees home. Suga, who cares deeply about the abductions issue, told these families he had raised the issue during his talks with foreign leaders including US President Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Family members are growing impatient with the lack of progress, however. YOKOTA Takuya, one of Megumi’s twin brothers, said his father had devoted himself to securing Megumi’s release for decades. “He kept fighting until 87 years of age,” Takuya said in his video message. “It was so hard for him. He so badly wanted (to see his grown-up daughter).”

Trump, who met families of the abductees when he visited Japan in 2017 and 2019, also mourned Shigeru’s death. He sent a condolence letter to Shigeru’s wife, Sakie, dated June 30, which said: “Thanks to the tireless advocacy of you and your husband, the North Korea abduction issue remains a primary focus for Japan and the United States. We join you and your sons, Takuya and Tetsuya, in continuing this important work to finally bring Megumi home.” On August 25, Sakie and her sons met Charge d’Affaires ad interim Joseph Young at the US ambassador’s residence in Tokyo to express their thanks for the letter.

The video features Takuya’s twin brother, Tetsuya; IIZUKA Koichiro, whose mother, TAGUCHI Yaeko, was abducted in 1978; MATSUKI Nobuhiro, whose elder brother, Kaoru, was abducted in 1980; and IMAI Hideki, whose younger brother, Yutaka, went missing in 1969 and is suspected to have been abducted.

Europe: Another stage for abductions

The video also sheds light on North Korea’s abduction operations in Europe and the more than 800 missing Japanese whose abduction by North Korea cannot be ruled out.

Most of the Japanese abductees were taken to North Korea from Japan. But three identified abductees were deceived into going to North Korea in the 1980s by wives of the Yodo-go hijackers. MATSUKI Kaoru and ISHIOKA Toru were abducted from Madrid in 1980 after being tricked by the wives of Japanese communist terrorists who hijacked a passenger plane and flew from Japan to North Korea in 1970. In 1983, ARIMOTO Keiko, who was in London, was deceived by another Yodo-go hijacker’s wife and taken to North Korea via Copenhagen.

In Japan’s first hijacking case, nine Japanese belonging to the Red Army Faction of the Communist League hijacked a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to what is now Fukuoka Airport on March 31, 1970. Passengers on the aircraft, called Yodo-go, were released at Fukuoka Airport and Gimpo Airport in Seoul after the Japanese government agreed the terrorists could take a parliamentary vice minister for transport as a hostage to Pyongyang, where they sought asylum. In 2002, the former wife of one hijacker said ARIMOTO Keiko had been abducted. In 2007, arrest warrants were issued for the wives of two hijackers in connection with the abductions of Ishioka and Matsuki.

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During the 2002 summit meeting, North Korea admitted abducting Matsuki, Ishioka and Arimoto but said they had since died. However, North Korea has not provided any satisfactory account or any convincing evidence of this. “In 2002, North Korea provided what they claimed were my brother’s remains,” Matsuki said in the video. “But based on forensic analysis, they were not his. In 2004, we again received remains that were possibly my brother’s, but they also weren’t his. North Korea still hasn’t provided any reliable evidence to back up its story about the abductees who it claims have died.”

Imai appeared in the video as President of the Family Association of the Missing Persons Probably Related to the DPRK, an organization of families of missing Japanese people for whom the possibility of abduction by North Korea cannot be eliminated. Imai described how his younger brother, Hideki, disappeared from his hometown in Aomori Prefecture two days before his high school graduation and with a steady job waiting for him in Tokyo.

The Government of Japan remains fully committed to demanding North Korea take action to assure the safety of all abductees and their immediate return to Japan, regardless of whether they are officially identified as victims of abduction by North Korea or not. Imai called for a Japan-North Korea summit meeting to be held soon to ensure the issue is settled quickly.

Close ties developed with families abroad

Japanese families of abductees have crafted cooperative ties with families of victims abroad over the years. Two of them delivered messages in the video: American James Sneddon, whose brother, David, allegedly was abducted by North Korea while traveling in China in 2004 ; and Banjong Panchoi, a Thai man whose aunt, Anocha, was allegedly abducted while she was working in Macau in 1978.

“We, David’s family, pray that our group of associated families will not fail in our ongoing efforts to return home all those men, women, and children abducted by the political leaders of (North Korea),” Sneddon said while reading a statement from his family.

Japanese families plan to deepen ties with families of foreign abductees in their fight to bring back their loved ones.