The daughter of Megumi Yokota, abducted from Japan and taken to North Korea in 1977 at age 13, is now 15 years old and living in Pyongyang, Megumi's father said Wednesday.
"Megumi's daughter is 15 years old now," Shigeru Yokota, 69, told reporters. "We have heard Megumi died when her daughter was 5 or 6 years old."
North Korea informed Japan on Tuesday that Megumi and seven other Japanese nationals abducted in the 1970s and 1980s had died.
"North Korea said just a month ago there were no abduction cases. We cannot believe what North Korea says," Yokota said during a news conference he attended with relatives of other abductees after a meeting with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe.
Yokota said the Japanese government had told him nothing about the father of Megumi's daughter.
He added that he wants to visit North Korea to find out how his daughter was taken to the country and how she lived and died.
Megumi Yokota was a junior high school student in Niigata on the Sea of Japan coast when she vanished in 1977 on Nov. 15, 1977, while on her way home from school.
Pyongyang claimed Tuesday that four abductees on Tokyo's list of 11 are still alive and living in North Korea. It said the deceased abductees died from disease or in natural disasters.