Kidnap parents' family reunion: Victim's daughter meets relatives for first time more than 35 years after her mother was snatched by North Korea 

  • North Korea admitted to Megumi Yokota's 1977 kidnapping in 2002
  • Also admitted several other kidnappings from Japan, part of spy training
  • Finally Yokota's parents saw their granddaughter in Mongolian capital
  • Capital is unofficial meeting place for North Korea and Japan
  • North Korea said Yokota died, but Japan doesn't believe them
  • Relationship tense between Japan and North Korea since abductions

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 19:35 EST, 16 March 2014 | UPDATED: 19:36 EST, 16 March 2014

The parents of a Japanese girl who was abducted by North Korea met their granddaughter for the first time, 35 years after she was snatched.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said that Megumi Yokota's parents spent several days with their granddaughter, Kim Eun Gyong, in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.

Ulan Bator is often used as a Japanese and North Korean official meeting point for unofficial contacts.

Gone: Megumi Yokota disappeared from her hometown in Japan in 1977 at the age of 13

Gone: Megumi Yokota disappeared from her hometown in Japan in 1977 at the age of 13

North Korea abducted Yokota in 1977 on her way home from school at the age of 13, and was declared dead in 2002, among admissions by North Korea that in the 1970s and 1980s they abducted 13 Japanese nationals in order to help them train spies.

Now her parents, Shigeru and Sakie, have finally met their granddaughter, whose father is a South Korean man, also abducted by North Korea.

North Korea also said that eight of the 13 abducted Japanese nationals had died, including Yokota.

 

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Japan has never accepted the explanation of Megumi Yokota's death, saying that bones North Korea supplied as Yokota's remains were actually those of a man, after comprehensive DNA testing.

Japan has suspected for years that there are even more unsolved abduction cases that North Korea has not disclosed, and the issue has held back a normal relationship between the two countries.

Agony: Mr and Mrs Yokota discovered 25 years later that their daughter had been kidnapped by North Korea

Agony: Mr and Mrs Yokota discovered 25 years later that their daughter had been kidnapped by North Korea

Family: Megumi, centre, with her parents Shigeru and Sakie, and younger brother Tetsuya and Takuya

Family: Megumi, centre, with her parents Shigeru and Sakie, and younger brother Tetsuya and Takuya

Japan has always demanded more information about the abductees taken to North Korea, while the totalitarian country has said the case is closed.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency said the Foreign Ministry 'embraced the meeting as a positive development and plans to seek the reopening of intergovernmental talks' between Japan and North Korea.

The news followed official talks between Japan and North Korean Red Cross affiliates about the return of remaining Japanese nationals from North Korea.

Alive: Megumi is pictured in North Korea as a young adult; the authorities claim that she has since died

Alive: Megumi is pictured in North Korea as a young adult; the authorities claim that she has since died

Formal talks between the two countries have been suspended since North Korea launched a rocket in 2012, which they said was to put a weather satellite into orbit.

However, many other countries, including the U.S, South Korea and Japan believe the launch was a nuclear technology test, in their plans to create a missile that could one day place a warhead as far away as the united states.

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How sad. Those poor parents.

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