Japanese woman abducted by North Korea died of overdose, report claims

Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national abducted by North Korean agents decades ago as a schoolgirl, died from drug overdose in a psychiatric hospital in 1994 and was buried in a pit with other corpses, a South Korean newspaper said yesterday.

Yokota, who has been a symbol of Japanese nationals abducted by the North and Tokyo's efforts to ascertain their fate, died of an overdose of sedatives and sleeping pills, the Dong-a Ilbo reported.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration eased sanctions on North Korea in July in return for Pyongyang's reopening of an investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Dong-a Ilbo said the finding was included in a report by Japanese officials who had interviewed North Korean witnesses on the staff of the hospital where Yokota died, and Abe's administration had been briefed about the fresh details.

Abe has made resolving the abductee issue a priority. Last week, he said North Korea had told Japan it intended to deepen its inquiries into their fate.

Pyongyang admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens to help train spies, and five abductees and their families later returned to Japan.