US ambassador to UN promises assistance to families of Japanese kidnapped and sent to North Korea

On Thursday, the US ambassador to the UN said that the US will support Japan until all Japanese citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea many years ago are reunited with their families and their agonizing separation is over.

On Thursday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield made these remarks while visiting with the relatives of individuals who had been abducted to kick off her trip to Tokyo.

Japan claims that throughout the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea kidnapped at least 17 Japanese nationals, and maybe many more, in order to train them as spies. North Korea issued an apology and permitted the visitation of five Japanese nationals after acknowledging in 2002 that it had kidnapped thirteen of them. Since then, they’ve remained in Japan. In addition to denying that the other four reached its territory and claiming that eight more people had perished, Pyongyang never carried out the planned reinvestigation.

Aside from those who reside near Japan’s shore, the twelve people who are still missing include adolescent students. A large number of them were loaded into little boats and sent to North Korea by sea.

Arriving at the Prime Minister’s Office to meet with five abductee relatives and a representative of their support group, Thomas-Greenfield declared at the beginning of the meeting that “the US stands with all the families, with all of Japan and with the international community in pressing for a resolution that will allow all families separated by the regime’s policies to be reunited.”

She said, “I know all too well the anguish, loss, and suffering that you family members here are going through.” “I am aware of your pain and the length of time you have had to bear it.”

Throughout her career, Thomas-Greenfield claimed to have worked on topics pertaining to North Korea.

The ambassador added that America adheres to that policy regardless of the leadership and that US President Joe Biden’s administration is dedicated to bringing up the kidnapping problem “at every opportunity and calling for the return of abducted Japanese citizens to their family.”

In order to secure the abductees’ release, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has expressed again and again his intention to meet with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea.

Experts claim that while Kishida, hurt by a significant corruption investigation in his ruling party, wants to utilize any progress in the abduction problem to shore up his flagging domestic popularity, Kim wants stronger relations with Japan to build a wedge between the US and its allies. However, they claim that a meeting would be challenging since Japan is unable to agree to Pyongyang’s demands about the resolution of the abduction problems.

When Megumi, then 13 years old, was stolen in 1977 from Japan’s northern shore while returning from school, Sakie Yokota, then 88, informed Thomas-Greenfield that she, her husband, and Megumi’s brothers looked for her for 20 years before learning that she had been taken. She said that they are still expecting to see her again.

“While I’m still well, all I want is to see her,” Yokota pleaded with the ambassador, pleading for more assistance in fixing the issue.

Following her previous visit to Seoul, where she and South Korean officials discussed a new method for monitoring North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, Thomas-Greenfield landed in Tokyo. Due to North Korea’s ballistic missile launches, Russia and China have obstructed US-led attempts to increase UN sanctions on the country since 2022, highlighting the growing rift between permanent Security Council members and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the face of rising tensions from China and North Korea in the area, the US, South Korea, and Japan have been strengthening their security alliances. The three nations have increased the scope of their joint military drills and their deterrent tactics, which center on US strategic assets.