Frustrated families and their supporters began a sit-in protest near Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's office yesterday, and are demanding economic sanctions against North Korea to pressure the communist regime to account for their loved ones abducted by Northern agents decades ago.
Holding placards and wearing their trademark blue ribbon-shaped pins, about 100 families and their supporters sat outside parliamentary buildings under the scorching sun, urging Koizumi and his lawmakers to use sanctions to pressure the communist regime.
North Korea has admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese to train its spies, allowing five to return home while claiming the rest died.
PHOTO: AP
But Tokyo believes that some could still be alive in the North and has criticized Pyongyang for not fully accounting for them.
Their families have been increasingly frustrated, especially after the North sent in November what it said were the ashes of Megumi Yokota, the highest profile kidnap victim, but an analysis here showed they belonged to several unrelated people.
Pyongyang said the remains of the other seven were either washed away in floods or were missing.
Yokota was kidnapped on her way home from school as a 13-year-old junior high school student in 1978.
North Korea criticized Japan's test results on the remains and other records Pyongyang provided, and bilateral talks on the abduction issue has stalled since.
"We've waited for all these years, as the prime minister favors dialogue rather than pressure. But we can't even have a dialogue [with the North]," said her younger brother, Takuya, who is urging Koizumi to take a more decisive step.
"We have a legitimate weapon, a sanction, and many [in the] Japanese public support it. Mr. Koizumi, please listen to our desperate plea," he said.
The group's protest will last through the weekend.
Despite growing public support for the sanctions, Koizumi has been reluctant to take the step, largely due to its possible impact on the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons. The talks have stalled since last June.
Koizumi said in a statement yesterday that he understands the families' hardships but at present does not plan to impose sanctions on North Korea.
"We are not in a situation where we could just impose sanctions and settle the issue," he told reporters.
"We have to respect views of the other countries [in the six-way talks] and cooperate," he added.
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