Nakayama asks U.N. to keep up pressure on DPRK through sanctions

NEW YORK, May 29 Kyodo

Kyoko Nakayama, the Japanese special adviser to the prime minister for the abduction issue, met Tuesday with several U.N. delegations and the international body's head of political affairs, to remind officials to keep pressure on North Korea in hopes of resolving the outstanding abductee issue.

North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, admitted in 2002 that its agents had taken 13 Japanese nationals in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reportedly to use their identities and for them to teach Japanese language and culture to spies.

Pyongyang has returned five of the 13 abductees, but maintains that the other eight, including Megumi Yokota, who was taken as a 13-year-old, were dead, a claim rejected by their families and the Japanese government.

''It cannot be justified at all to kidnap somebody, deprive their freedom and supervise him or her,'' Nakayama told reporters after meeting with Lynn Pascoe, the U.N. head of political affairs. ''The U.N. is an important forum to let the DPRK recognize that. Any positive move at the U.N. would have strong impact on the DPRK.''

She also said that continuing the U.N. sanctions on North Korea ''is necessary and important'' so that the North can take ''positive and sincere steps'' towards resolving the outstanding matter.

During Nakayama's first meeting with Pascoe, she outlined the abduction issue in detail for him and expressed her concerns.

While Pascoe told her that any direct involvement by the U.N. Secretariat would be difficult, he offered his cooperation.

Following the meeting with Pascoe, Nakayama was joined by five representatives from four countries -- the United States, Portugal, Romania and France -- who attended a working lunch that lasted about an hour and a half.

Among the American attendees was Jay Lefkowitz, President George W. Bush's special envoy on human rights in North Korea who told reporters that the kidnappings were a ''a terrible example and perhaps a quintessential example of state sponsored terrorism'' and linked the abductions with the broader human rights issue.

''Obviously for North Korea ever to take its part and its place in the community of nations it is going to have to make amends for this type of conduct and obviously come clean and make a full explanation and begin to open up its society to permit fundamental freedom,'' he noted.

''This is a very high-profile issue in the public opinion in Romania and for the government as well,'' said Romanian Ambassador Mihnea Motoc. He also pointed out that a Romanian woman had also been taken by North Koreans so that his country was paying special attention to the issue through bilateral and international avenues.

Nakayama is scheduled to meet with U.S. governmental officials, as well as with academics, in Washington over the next two days to raise the profile of the issue in the nation's capital.

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