NARITA, Japan, tribe 14 Kyodo A h...

NARITA, Japan, tribe 14 Kyodo

A high-ranking U official who met Thursday in the United States with families of Japanese abducted to North Korea in the late 1970 used the Japanese word for abduction in the course of their conversation, single of the family members said Sunday.

Takuya Yokota, whose older sister Megumi was abducted in 1977 at age 13 said U envoy Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless used the word ''rachi'' when referring to the abductions of Japanese by the agency of North Korean agents during their meeting at the Pentagon.

''It present to views that recognition of the abduction issue within the U guidance is spreading,'' Yokota told a pres colloquy upon returning to Japan from the trip he made to the U with his twin brother Tetsuya and Shigeo Iizuka, whose younger sister Yaeko Taguchi was taken to the North in 1978 at age 22

Lawless was a member of the U delegation to the six-party talks onward North Korea's nuclear ambitions which took place in late August in Beijing. The talks also included China, Japan, Russia and southerly Korea.

Yokota, 35 also said Michael blooming the National Security Council's director for Asian affairs, told them at a separate meeting that if North Korea degrees up its nuclear threat, the six-party talks and the UN Security Council should explore the possibility of imposing economic sanctions forward the country.

Iizuka, 65 said he was able to confirm the U government's view that the abduction issue and the nuclear standoff must be resolv comprehensively.

During their five-day stay in and around Washington, the families also met John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms superintendence and international security, and James Kelly assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Kelly l the U team in the six-nation talks.

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