National News Fact-finding team given doubious information about abductees' deaths

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A government fact-finding team said Oct. 2 it had met and confirmed the identities of five Japanese nationals during a recent mission to North Korea.

The 11-member team, however, remained skeptical about the reported deaths of eight other abductees - six of whose remains are said to have been washed away in at least two floods - citing a lack of hard evidence.

According to the North Korean Foreign Ministry:

Megumi Yokota, who was kidnapped in November 1977 in Niigata at the age of 13, committed suicide in March 1993 in a mental hospital while being treated for depression.

Keiko Arimoto, taken in July 1983 to North Korea from Europe at the age of 23, died of carbon monoxide poisoning in November 1988 due to a malfunctioning coal heater. Toru Ishioka, who lived with Arimoto and their child, also died in the mishap.

Two abductees died in separate car accidents, and a married couple in their 20s died of heart-related problems.

"I don't think enough evidence was found (about the reported deaths of abductees)," Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said. "We will continue to demand more information to find the truth."

While in the North, the team met a teenage girl believed to be the daughter of Yokota and brought back hair samples that will be analyzed to determine whether she really is the abductee's offspring.

The team also brought back remains believed to be those of Kaoru Matsuki, who Pyongyang officials say voluntarily went to the country in June 1980 along with Ishioka. Matsuki allegedly died in August 1996 in a traffic accident.

The team, headed by Akitaka Saiki, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, met all five surviving abductees during its visit

The Japanese mission identified the five surviving Japanese based on their physical features and responses to personal questions.

The five survivors are: Hitomi Soga, and couples Kaoru Hasuike and Yukiko Okudo, and Yasushi Chimura and Fukie Hamamoto.

日本人拉致調査団が報告

政府の拉致調査団は2日、北朝鮮による日本人拉致事件の調査結果を発表した。8人の「死因」はいずれも北朝鮮側の説明。調査団はまた、生存者5人と面会した。

Shukan ST: Oct. 11, 2002

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