Niigata: Prime Minister Taro Aso on Saturday visited the site in Niigata Prefecture where a Japanese national was believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents in 1977, making him the first premier to do so.
"As a father of two, my heart felt heavy thinking about
how the parents of a young girl, who was a first-year junior
high school student, felt after she was taken away," Aso said.
Megumi Yokota was allegedly abducted when she was 13.
Aso also tracked the route in guidance by the Niigata
prefectural police officials to Yokota used by the girl to go
home from school from the point where she parted with two of
her friends on the day she was abducted.
North Korea admitted abducting her along with other
Japanese nationals.
He then visited a site near the Sea of Japan where she
was allegedly forcibly put into a boat and taken to North
Korea.
Bureau Report
