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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
On 14 April, the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting, adopted a resolution drafted and submitted jointly by Japan and the EU on the situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). It called on North Korea to immediately return Japanese abductees and on the UN General Assembly to take up the question of North Korean human rights violations in general.
The No 1 abductee whose return is sought by Japan is Yokota Megumi, abducted from the Japan Sea coast in Niigata prefecture on 15 November 1977, when the 13-year old schoolgirl was returning home from a badminton match. She would be, if indeed still alive today, a woman in her early 40s.[2]
[1] “Statement by the Press Secretary/Director- General for Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the adoption of the resolution on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights,” 15 April 2005.
[2] For general details on the abductions, Gavan McCormack, Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, New York Nation Books, 2004, chapter 6, and Gavan McCormack and Wada Haruki, “Forever Stepping Back: The Strange Record of 15 Years of Negotiations between Japan and North Korea,” forthcoming in a volume edited by John Feffer.
[3] For details of the abductions and the various statements by the two governments, see, for the Japanese side, the Japanese government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website and for the North Korean side, statements as reported in the Japanese media.
[4] Japanese government statement of 24 December 2004.
[5] “Biboroku,” Asahi shimbun, 28 January 2005.
[6] Japanese officials, shown the tree in November 2004, estimated that its trunk was a mere 10 centimeters in diameter, a circumstance that deepened their doubt about the suicide story. (“Rachi higaisha seizon no kanosei,” Asahi shimbun, 3 April 2005.)
[7] NHK television, 27 March 2005.
[8] David Cyranoski, “DNA is burning issue as Japan and Korea clash over kidnaps,” Nature, Vol. 433, 3 February 2005, p. 445.
[9] “Netsuzo wa, kiji ka kantei kekka ka,” Shukan gendai, 19 March 2005.
[10] “Politics versus reality,” Nature, Vol. 434, 17 March 2005, p. 257.
[11] Machimura Nobutaka, Foreign Minister, in response to question in the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, 23 February 2005.
[12] “David Cyranoski, “Geneticist’s new post could stop him testifying about DNA tests,” Nature, Vol. 434, 7 April 2005, p. 685.
[13] Machimura, in response to question in the House of Representatives, 30 March 2005.
[14] “‘Nicho ikotsu kantei kobo’ senmonka kenkai,” Seoul, Yonhap, 25 January 2005.
[15] Donald Macintyre, “Bones of Contention,” Time, 4 April 2005, Vol. 165, No. 13.
[16] “‘Nihon gaimusho to awanu’ meigen,” Asahi shimbun, 3 April 2005.
[17] “North Korea: Human Rights Concerns for the 61st Session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission,” New York, Human Rights Watch, 4 April 2005.
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