Akitaka Saiki

"No documents were presented as evidence of their efforts," said Akitaka Saiki, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. "The results were very unfortunate and insufficient."

Although North Korea corrected some parts of the investigation results it conveyed to Japan two years ago, Pyongyang did not change its earlier conclusion that eight Japanese it admitted to abducting had died and the two others had never entered its territory, sources said.

Vice Director of North Korea's Foreign Ministry Song Il Ho

North Korea admitted errors in three cases, including that of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted in 1977 at the age of 13. The North had said she died in March 1993, but it said in Beijing that Yokota had been hospitalized until June of that year. Tokyo had said it obtained information that she was alive in 1994.

North Korea also modified information related to Keiko Arimoto and Toru Ishioka. Pyongyang had said they died in November 1988, three years after they were married.

Relatives of the abductees expressed anger at North Korea for providing no new information, and called on the government to impose economic sanctions and take other tough measures.

The Japan Times Weekly: Oct. 2, 2004
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