Taken_LQ

previously of NARKN, established an independent research arm called the
“Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea” (COMJAN).60
COMJAN’s objectives are very broad—it seeks to investigate any cases of missing
persons that may possibly be related to North Korea, investigates any missing
Japanese whose families have turned in a request to search for them or whom
COMJAN has independently received information on; it gathers information from
North Koreans who have escaped North Korea; it proposes policies to the Japanese
government regarding the investigation of missing Japanese, counsels families
who have turned in the requests to COMJAN, produces and transmits short radio
programs to North Korea and pursues other means to get information in and out
of North Korea.61
While these issues still remain of intense interest in Japan, the movement has
expanded its activities to the international arena. AFVKN, NARKN and concerned
members of the Diet have traveled to meet and raise the awareness of leaders,
experts and supporters in Washington, New York and the West Coast of the United
States, annually since 2001. The enactment of the North Korea Human Rights Act
of 2004 by the U. S. Congress was very encouraging for the Japanese movement
because it included language that called for the resolution of abduction cases of all
foreign victims:
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. In addition to infringing the rights of its own citizens, the
Government of North Korea has been responsible in years past for the abduction
of numerous citizens of South Korea and Japan, whose condition and whereabouts
remain unknown. 62
Since 2005, members of the Japanese interest groups and family members
of the missing have participated in North Korea Freedom Week every Spring,
organized by the Washington DC-based North Korea Freedom Coalition.
It was during the 2006 North Korea Freedom Week that Sakie Yokota
was given the opportunity to tell her story before a hearing of the US House of
Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee for Asian and Pacific
Affairs.
During the same visit, she was invited to meet with President George W.
Bush on April 28, 2006. After meeting Mrs. Yokota, President Bush said,” "I have
just had one of the most moving meetings since I've been the President here in the
Oval Office.” 63
During her first visit to Japan after becoming Secretary of State, in February
60
Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, Megumi Techo
61
See COMJAN’s website, http://www.chosa-kai.jp/indexeng.htm.
62
North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-333, 118 Stat. 1287 (2004).
63
United States White House. “President George W. Bush welcomes Mrs. Sakie Yokota....” Welcome to the
White House. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/04/images/20060428-1_
p042806pm-0188jpg-515h.html (accessed April 27, 2011).
2009, Hillary Clinton arranged her schedule to meet with families of Japanese
abductees and reassured them that she attaches “great importance to the abduction
issue” and said that “it’s important that their plight not be forgotten.” 64
South Korea has also taken steps to increase public awareness of the plight
of those abducted to North Korea. Through the diligent efforts of KWAFU, the
South Korean National Assembly passed a law honoring the wartime abductees in
March 2010. This law provided the first official recognition that South Koreans were
in fact abducted to North Korea during the Korean War. It recognizes that all of
those who disappeared during the war cannot be considered automatically to have
been defectors to the North. The law authorized the South Korean government to
investigate the status of abductees, repatriate them, and exchange information about
them with the North Korean government. The law came into force on September
27, 2010 and the Committee for Investigation of Wartime Abduction Damage and
Rehabilitation was created under the Prime Minister’s office in December of 2010.
As this report has explained, family members, friends, volunteers and
governments across the globe have expended great effort to gather accurate
information to account for those who may have been abducted and bring them
home. This is not merely a Japanese issue, although the Japanese cases are among
the most violent and are clearly very important. The Japanese families’ groups
AFVKN and NARKN have reached out to KWAFU in South Korea and have formed
the International Coalition to Resolve the Abduction by North Korea. Coalition
members from Thailand, Romania, the US and other nations have formed a larger
support group to strengthen international ties as well as to promote international
awareness and support. They hold conferences every year that broaden the public’s
awareness of these crimes committed by North Korea against the citizens of at least
twelve nations. It is through this type of international cooperation and coordination
that the lives of captives in North Korea may be saved, and abducted persons may
be able to return to their homes. Without such international pressure, the fate of the
captives will never be known.
64
Glenn Kessler, “Clinton to Meet Families of Abducted Japanese: U.S. Emphasis on Seizures by N. Korea
in ‘70s, ‘80s Accompanied by Peace Outline for Pyongyang,” Washington Post, February 14, 2009,
available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/13/AR2009021303141.
html?nav=emailpage.
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