China yesterday criticized Tokyo for accusing North Korea of lying about a Japanese kidnap victim just as envoys from six nations were trying to get Pyongyang back to nuclear talks.
"I think it was a coincidence, but Japan could have delayed the timing," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei (武大偉), the chief delegate to the talks from North Korea's main ally, told reporters.
Japan announced on Tuesday that DNA tests showed a man who married and fathered a child of Japanese woman Megumi Yokota was likely Kim Young-nam, a South Korean who was also kidnapped -- not a North Korean as Pyongyang says.
The Japanese chief negotiator revealed the DNA results to a North Korean envoy who was on a rare visit to Tokyo for a private conference among the six nations in the suspended dialogue on the North's nuclear ambitions.
In Seoul, Kim's family appealed yesterday for a reunion with their long-lost loved one.
"I miss him. I would appreciate if I'm able to meet him," said Kim's mother Choi Gye-wol, 78, during a press conference.
"I heard he married a Japanese person and has a daughter. I want to see my granddaughter too ... That's my wish before I die," she said, wiping tears from her eyes with handkerchief.
Kim disappeared from a beach on South Korea's southwest coast in 1978 when he was 16. His family had thought Kim drowned or died somehow, but learned later from Seoul that he was kidnapped by communist agents from North Korea.
"I want to ask North Korea to allow us to meet my brother," said Kim Young-ja, 48, a sister of Kim. "I can't say to the North anything other than this."
On Tuesday Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called on Seoul to step up pressure on Pyongyang in light of the tests showing Yokota had a South Korean husband.
But South Korean negotiator Chun Young-woo said he did not discuss the issue when he met for two hours late on Tuesday with North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan.
"We had no time to discuss it," Chun said.
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