Kim Young-nam, a South Korea who was allegedly abducted by North Korea when he was 16 years old.

Denying he was abducted by the North, he claimed he was rescued by a North Korean vessel while drifting out to sea on a small boat off a South Korean beach nowhere near North Korean waters.

Kim Young-nam met his South Korean sister and mother at the end of June, which was their first reunion since 1978 when he disappeared from a beach on South Korea's southwest coast at age 16.

Kim Young-nam echoed Pyongyang's claim that his former wife, a Japanese abductee, Megumi Yokota, killed herself in a hospital on April 13, 1994. Many Japanese believe Yokota is alive, and the abductee issue has become one of the key issues in normalizing ties between Pyongyang and Tokyo.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 8, 2006
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