REFILING: LEAD: Cheney to meet families of Japanese abductees on Thursday

TOKYO, Feb. 21 Kyodo

(EDS: CORRECTING AGE OF MEGUMI AT 2ND GRAF)

Visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney will hold talks Thursday with the families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the past, top Japanese government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Wednesday.

The meeting comes upon a Japanese government request as a strong message to Pyongyang of Washington's unabated commitment to help Tokyo resolve the abduction issue following U.S. President George W. Bush's emotional meeting at the White House Oval Office last April with Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was abducted in 1977 at age 13 and remains missing.

Referring to a breakfast meeting earlier Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki told reporters that Cheney expressed Washington's understanding of Japan's position that until there is progress in resolving the abduction issue, Tokyo will not take part in multilateral efforts to provide energy aid to North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang's taking steps to abandon its nuclear programs under an agreement reached last week at the six-party talks.

''I, as minister in charge of the abduction issue, expressed my gratitude that he will be meeting the families of the abduction victims tomorrow,'' Shiozaki told a news conference.

Last April, Bush described his talks with Yokota as ''one of the most moving meetings'' of his presidency and promised to press North Korea to return abductees and respect human rights.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents abducted 13 Japanese nationals, including Megumi, in the late 1970s and 1980s, reportedly to use their identities and have them teach Japanese language and culture to spies. Megumi has become a symbol of the abductee issue in Japan.

Pyongyang has returned five of the 13 abductees, maintaining that the other eight, including Megumi, have died, a claim rejected by their families and the Japanese government.

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