Ms. Yaeko Taguchi was abducted by North Korea in 1978 at the age of 22. Earlier this week Mr. Koichiro Iizuka, her son, and Mr. Shigeo Iizuka, her elder brother, met Ms. Kim Hyon Hui, a former North Korean agent, in Busan, South Korea. Ms. Kim told the Iizukas that she believed that Ms. Taguchi was alive. Ms. Taguchi is one of 17 Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea. Her son was only a year old at that time.
The meeting, organized by the Japanese and South Korean governments, reflects the bilateral cooperation that is now taking place to resolve the issue of abductions by North Korea. That the meeting could take place is likely due to the fact that conservative South Korean President Lee Myun Bak is in power. His two predecessors avoided taking actions that the North Korean government might view as provocative.
South Korea sentenced Ms. Kim for planting a bomb that downed a South Korean airliner in 1987, killing all 115 people aboard, but she was later given a presidential pardon. It is believed that Ms. Kim lived with Ms. Taguchi and received Japanese lessons from her for about 20 months from July 1981.