Ex-North Korean saboteur Kim Hyon Hui stressed Thursday to relatives of Japanese abducted by Pyongyang that their loved ones may still be alive.
Although Kim, who has not been in the North since the 1980s, offered no new revelations in a meeting with the abductees' kin in Tokyo, she said Pyongyang would "properly" treat the kidnap victims and would not execute them, according to Tsutomu Nishioka, chairman of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, a private group.
Kim "kept telling us to remain hopeful, that (our relatives) were still alive," Nishioka said during a news conference after the meeting. "She said Pyongyang probably declared the abductees dead because they were being used for secret missions. She said North Korea is not an orderly country like Japan and it is quite possible that it may one day reveal that (the abductees) were alive."