For years, Japan saw kidnapping victim Megumi Yokota only as an innocent child, a fresh-faced junior high badminton player in school uniform, black hair framing her cheeks.
Now for the first time, photographs are on display of Yokota's life after her 1977 abduction by North Korean spies, as she grew from a teenager into an adult imprisoned behind the reclusive regime's wall of secrecy.
PHOTOS: AP PHOTO/NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE RESCUE OF JAPANESE
Three images of Yokota provided by North Korea -- one as a sad-eyed teenager and two as a young woman -- dominated front pages and talk shows this week, intensifying Japanese anguish and outrage over her abduction.
"We couldn't help crying when we saw the picture showing her worrying face looking directly at the camera," Megumi's mother, Sakie Yokota, tearfully told reporters. "I don't know whom she wanted to appeal to ... after being kidnapped in suffering and tears."
Megumi Yokota is among 13 Japanese citizens North Korea has admitted kidnapping in the 1970s and 1980s. Five were allowed to return to Japan in 2002, but North Korea has claimed -- so far unconvincingly -- that the others, including Yokota, are dead.
Her age at the time of her kidnapping -- 13 -- and the tireless efforts of her parents have turned Megumi Yokota into a symbol of Japanese indignation over the kidnappings and a poster child for the campaign by abductees' families to win a full investigation into the fates of the victims.
The families have called for sanctions against North Korea. But Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, under questioning in a parliament hearing, said he wants to keep the North Koreans engaged in hopes of making progress.
"There is still room for negotiations," he insisted on Wednesday. "We should make the effort, even if we can take only one or two steps ahead at a time."
While the latest negotiations in Pyongyang have not yielded what the Japanese hoped for, they did promise to shed faint light on Yokota's case.
The Japanese negotiators who returned from North Korea on Monday met with Kim Chol-jun and Kim Hea-kyong, identified by Pyongyang as Yokota's husband and daughter. The negotiators also visited a hospital that supposedly treated Yokota and were given lengthy health records.
In a heartbreaking turn, Kim Chol-jun handed over an urn containing what the North says are Yokota's remains.
Pyongyang claims she committed suicide in 1994; DNA identification is expected next week.
But with North Korea's history of deception -- bones it claimed in 2002 belonged to another abductee, for example, turned out to be someone else's -- speculation has gone into overdrive about whether Yokota was being kept in the country ruled by Kim Jong-il.
After years of mystery, the new photos are tantalizing.
In the earlier picture, Yokota looks forlornly into the camera, wearing what experts say is a typical North Korean school uniform. In another, she poses, smiling slightly, well-dressed and apparently well-fed. The third photograph shows her standing next to a black car, with snowdrifts behind her.
"Looking at these calmly, the pictures show her in neat clothing and wearing makeup," observed her father, Shigeru Yokota. "I feel she possibly lived a relatively happy life."
Talk-show panelists examined the photos in excruciating detail on Wednesday, bringing out a drama professor who scrutinized Yokota's expressions for clues to her emotional state and an auto expert who identified the car as a Mercedes.
Media accounts have focused on inconsistencies in North Korean accounts of Yokota's death: changing dates, alleged contradictions in hos-pital records and suspicions that, as an attractive young woman, she was associated too closely with North Korea's elite to be allowed to leave.
"I imagine she had been very close to Kim Jong-il. I hear people say she had been his teacher and so on," said Kaneko Tomiyama, a 51-year-old Tokyo woman. "I think she was not allowed to return to Japan because she knew too much about the North."
The man identified as her husband also reportedly refused to provide hair and blood samples that would prove he fathered the girl identified as their daughter.
Her family is still clinging to hope she is alive.
"I know that everything in that country is a lie," Yokota's mother said. "I'm praying that the DNA tests on the remains will show they are not Megumi's."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number