Tests point to abductee's identity

DNA tests have suggested that the husband of Japanese kidnapping victim Megumi Yokota is probably a South Korean man who also was abducted by North Korea, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Tests matching DNA from the couple's daughter with that of a family in South Korea have concluded the man was "highly likely" South Korean national Kim Young-nam, the ministry said.

North Korea has said Yokota is dead, but many in Japan believe she is still alive and living in North Korea, where she married and had a daughter.

Tokyo tested DNA samples provided by the relatives of five South Korean men allegedly kidnapped by North Korea to see if any matched that of Yokota's daughter, Kim Hae-kyong, who is now 18 and lives in North Korea. The one taken from Kim Young-nam showed that he and the girl were likely father and daughter, the statement said.

In Seoul, Choi Sung-yong, leader of a group of South Koreans whose relatives are believed held in the communist state, said the Japanese government informed him yesterday that Yokota's husband is most likely Kim Young-nam, a South Korean citizen allegedly kidnapped by the North in 1978.

Kim was a high school student when he was allegedly abducted in 1978, Choi said.

"I was informed by the Japanese government this afternoon that the DNA of Kim's relatives matched that of Megumi's daughter,'' Choi said.

Japanese officials met Yokota's daughter in Pyongyang during a September 2002 visit. Tokyo later concluded the girl was Megumi's biological daughter based on DNA tests using hair and blood samples.

Japanese officials also met with a North Korean man named Kim Chol-jun, who Pyongyang said was Yokota's husband when a Japanese delegation visited Pyongyang in 2004 for abduction talks. But North Korea barred the delegation from receiving any biological material from him or any physical contact, said Yoshizane Ishii, an official in charge of abduction issues at the Cabinet Office.

The ministry statement did not rule out the possibility that Kim Chol-jun and Kim Young-nam were the same person.