Missing Japanese Girl Kidnapped by North Korea Still Elicits Ire

June 30, 2006 TOKYO — -- Nearly 30 years after a 13-year-old girl in northern Japan was kidnapped by North Koreans, her abduction still elicits anger.

President Bush mentioned the kidnapping during his news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday.

"I just could not imagine what it would be like to have someone have taken, you know, my daughter -- one of my daughters -- and never be able to see her again," Bush said. "What kind of regime would kidnap people? Just take them offshore?"

That is the exact question Megumi Yokota's parents have been asking for almost three decades.

On Nov. 15, 1977, Megumi was kidnapped by North Korean agents near her house in Niigata, in northern Japan.

"We had no idea of what happened to her," said Sakie Yokota, Megumi's 70-year-old mother, who met with Bush in the Oval Office this spring. "She just did not come home, and we have not seen her since then."

After years of silence, Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea, made an astonishing revelation in 2002. He said that North Korea had abducted Megumi and 12 other Japanese people.

The Yokotas had hoped to reunite with their daughter, but it was too late.

North Korean officials say Megumi, who suffered depression, killed herself in the 1990s. Many Japanese residents, including the Yokotas, however, do not believe Megumi is dead because North Korea hasn't presented solid proof of her death.

Megumi is believed to have married a South Korean abductee, Kim Yong-Nam, and conceived a daughter, Kim Hye Gyon, an 18-year-old who attends school in North Korea.

Kim Yong-Nam is now married to another woman in North Korea and has one son with her.

The North Korean government arranged a surprise family reunion with Kim Yong-Nam and his family, which took place the day before Bush and Koizumi discussed the abductions and pledged to work together for the resolution.

Kim's 78-year-old mother and 48-year-old sister traveled to North Korea to see their long-lost family member for the first time in 28 years.