Japanese to testify to UN on North Korean kidnappings

North Korea told Sakie Yokota that her daughter, who disappeared in Japan at age 13 in 1977, had committed suicide. But Yokota is to tell the UN that she heard Megumi is teaching Japanese in Pyongyang to a member of the ruling Kim family. Sakie Yokota and family members of other victims of kidnappings by North Korean agents were set to testify Tuesday before the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Japan is demanding action on resolving the abductions. “If North Korea wishes to progress in normalization negotiations, there needs to be a clear resolution of this question,” said foreign ministry official Akitaka Saiki, in Geneva with the kidnap victims’ relatives. North Korea’s leader Kim-Jong-Il admitted for the first time last year that North Korean agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s in order to train spies in Japanese language and culture. Megumi Yokota was said to have committed suicide after being kidnapped to North Korea. But the Pyongyang hospital involved never provided a medical report. Full Story