A former top-ranking North Korean official who defected to South Korea in 1997 said Wednesday he has no knowledge of the abductions of Japanese citizens by Pyongyang agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hwang Jang Yop, a former secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, made the remark when he met with relatives of three Japanese who were kidnapped and taken to North Korea in the late 1970s.
The family members, including Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was snatched in 1977 at age 13, were on a three-day visit to Seoul. They were attempting to boost cooperation with South Koreans to obtain the return of their missing kin, who North Korea says have died.