Reuters AlertNet Lite - Japan police raid N.Korea-linked group over kidnap

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Japan police raid N.Korea-linked group over kidnap

25 Apr 2007 02:29:34 GMT
Source: Reuters

TOKYO, April 25 (Reuters) - Japanese police carried out raids on Wednesday on the offices of a group linked to North Korea and the home of a woman suspected of abducting two children to the reclusive communist state more than three decades ago.

The move comes at a time when Japan and North Korea are locked in a simmering dispute over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s -- a major stumbling block to forging diplomatic ties between the World War Two foes.

Tokyo police searched the premises of two facilities linked to a pro-Pyongyang group in Tokyo and the home of a 55-year-old woman, investigation sources said.

Police believe the woman played a key role in the abduction in 1973 of two children of a Japanese woman married to a pro-Pyongyang Korean resident in Japan, the sources said.

The woman is suspected of conspiring with a 59-year-old North Korean agent to kidnap the children, aged 3 and 6, the sources said.

The two children are not on a government list of Japanese nationals Tokyo believes were abducted to North Korea.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese, sparking outrage in Japan.

Five of them were repatriated that same year, but Pyongyang says the other eight are dead. Tokyo wants more information about the eight and four others it says were also kidnapped, and wants any survivors sent home.

The issue of the abductees, spirited away from their homeland in the 1970s and 1980s to help train North Korean spies in Japanese language and culture, is an emotive one in Japan.

It is also high on the agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made his name by talking tough about North Korea.

Abe has said he will discuss the abduction issue with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David later this week.

Japan says it will not give full-scale economic assistance to North Korea or establish diplomatic ties unless the abduction issue is resolved.

Japan and North Korea held talks in Hanoi last month on establishing diplomatic ties as part of a six-country deal in February to halt Pyongyang's nuclear arms programme in exchange for aid and diplomatic recognition. But the talks stalled over historical differences as well as the abduction issue.

A failure to improve ties could hinder a six-party agreement because Tokyo is reluctant to give large-scale aid to Pyongyang in return for abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Under a Feb. 13 six-party deal, North Korea would receive energy aid in exchange for "disabling" its nuclear facilities. But Japan has refused to pitch in.

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Last updated:Wed Apr 25 02:31:45 2007