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As Kim talks peace, silent rage of Japanese abductees’ families
The relatives of around 100 Japanese thought to have been forcibly taken to North Korea are losing hope of ever seeing their loved ones again
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Nearly 40 years after his younger sister was abducted by North Korean agents, Shigeo Iizuka holds out the faintest glimmer of hope that Pyongyang’s apparent willingness to build bridges with the rest of the world might mean she can come home.
But he admits that outcome is still unlikely.
On the same day that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared after talks in Florida that he had convinced US President Donald Trump to raise the matter of the fate of the abductees when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in May or early June, 79-year-old Iizuka said he had hoped that sanctions and the threat of military action might have convinced the North to free the foreign nationals that it still holds.
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Now that pressure is being replaced with talks, however, he is less optimistic.
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“North Korea must have been suffering under such strong sanctions and by working with the US, I had hoped that we would be able to strongly demand our relatives’ safe return.” he told This Week in Asia, referring to the families of around 100 Japanese who are suspected of having been forcibly taken to North Korea.
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