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Ex-North Korean spy visits Japan
TOKYO, A former North Korean spy and airline bomber met in Japan Tuesday with relatives of Japanese abducted by the North's agents, Japan's prime minister said.
Kyodo News reported it is the first trip outside South Korea for Kim Hyon Hui since she was convicted in the 1987 terror attack on a South Korean passenger jet. Kim, 48, was released in 1990 after receiving a presidential pardon.
Kim arrived in Tokyo for a four-day visit on a Japanese government-chartered flight under the auspices of a special entry permit, Kyodo said. She then traveled under heavy police protection to former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's country house in Karuizawa.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he hopes Kim's meetings with abductees' family members "will help lead to the whole truth about the abductions and to the rescue of the victims at the earliest possible date."
Shigeo Iizuka, the brother of abductee Yaeko Taguchi, said after meeting with Kim that he didn't receive any new information, though Kyodo said Kim was quoted as saying Taguchi is alive and will return home.
Kim is to meet with the parents of abductee Megumi Yokota Wednesday, Kyodo said.
Kim, the daughter of a North Korean diplomat, was sentenced to death for placing explosives on Korean Air Flight 858, which exploded over Myanmar while bound for Seoul from Baghdad in November 1987. All 115 people on board died. Kim's accomplice, another North Korean agent, committed suicide shortly after the bombing.
Taguchi was abducted in 1978 at age 22.
Yokota was abducted in 1977 at age 13 and the North said she died but her family does not believe the claim.
Japan claims at least 17 Japanese were abducted to North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Five of them were sent home in 2002.
TOKYO, A former North Korean spy and airline bomber met in Japan Tuesday with relatives of Japanese abducted by the North's agents, Japan's prime minister said.
Kyodo News reported it is the first trip outside South Korea for Kim Hyon Hui since she was convicted in the 1987 terror attack on a South Korean passenger jet. Kim, 48, was released in 1990 after receiving a presidential pardon.
Kim arrived in Tokyo for a four-day visit on a Japanese government-chartered flight under the auspices of a special entry permit, Kyodo said. She then traveled under heavy police protection to former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's country house in Karuizawa.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he hopes Kim's meetings with abductees' family members "will help lead to the whole truth about the abductions and to the rescue of the victims at the earliest possible date."
Shigeo Iizuka, the brother of abductee Yaeko Taguchi, said after meeting with Kim that he didn't receive any new information, though Kyodo said Kim was quoted as saying Taguchi is alive and will return home.
Kim is to meet with the parents of abductee Megumi Yokota Wednesday, Kyodo said.
Kim, the daughter of a North Korean diplomat, was sentenced to death for placing explosives on Korean Air Flight 858, which exploded over Myanmar while bound for Seoul from Baghdad in November 1987. All 115 people on board died. Kim's accomplice, another North Korean agent, committed suicide shortly after the bombing.
Taguchi was abducted in 1978 at age 22.
Yokota was abducted in 1977 at age 13 and the North said she died but her family does not believe the claim.
Japan claims at least 17 Japanese were abducted to North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Five of them were sent home in 2002.
