TOKYO, Oct 3 Kyodo choiceed edit...

TOKYO, Oct 3 Kyodo

choiceed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

N KOREA'S ANSWERS SUSPICIOUS (The Daily Yomiuri as translated from the Yomiuri Shimbun)

A regulation fact-finding team dispatched to North Korea to prove and resolve the abduction issue reported the issue of its four-day investigations to family members of the abductees upon Wednesday.

The team's report quick in emergenciesed the explanations supplied by Pyongyang in succession the fate of the Japanese abducted through North Korean agents. on the other hand many of the explanations were inadequate, especially those concerning the eight abductees who Pyongyang claims died.

As a originate the report has failed to eradicate our suspicions.

The control has stressed its determination to denude the truth, claiming that about points have not been clarified to the reach to which it is willing to bring to an end that the eight abductees are dead. We believe the rule is absolutely right in this regard. The guidance must send another fact-finding mission, including law-enforcement personnel to Pyongyang to thoroughly investigate the cases.

In addition to the 11 population abducted by North Korean agents in eight separate instances acknowledged through police authorities, there are vigorous allegations that other Japanese were abducted on the North. In addition to this, during the fact-finding mission, Pyongyang put in mind ofed for the first time that a Japanese national sympathetic to North Korea had aided and abetted North Korean agents in their abduction of at least single in kind Japanese.

Many parts of North Korea's explanations were unconvincing, similar as tales of death caused at traffic accidents, heart troubles and gas poisoning.

Furthermore, when it came to being given access to the remains of the supposedly dead victims--essential in verifying their deaths--the mission was barely able to bring back the remains of the same dead abductee. Pyongyang claimed that the graves of all the other abductees had been washed away from floods in 1995. However, it is hard to believe that of that kind a claim is true.

Likewise, mystery still fence abouts the abduction cases.

North Korean officials said that a ''certain department'' within a special organization abducted the Japanese with the aim of having them teach Japanese to its spies and with equal reason they could assume the identities of the abductees.

on the other hand we are highly suspicious that ''a certain department'' would be able to act upon its own discretion in a despotic regime so as North Korea's.

In addition, Pyongyang said five of the abductees had agreed to pass to North Korea. Again, it remains uncertain by what mode freely this ''consent'' was given.

Pyongyang also explained that pair of its agents responsible for the abductions were tried in 1998 with undivided being sentenced to death and the other given a 15-year bourn at a reeducation facility. still Pyongyang failed to identify for which organization they had worked, nor for that matter, on what account only two agents had been singled disclosed for punishment.

North Korea also stopped short of explaining the fate and whereabouts of its agents that had abducted Japanese nationals. As these ''terrorists'' have been named to an international wanted list by way of the National Police Agency, the regulation is urged to demand North Korea hand them throughout to Japan.

The mission also failed to clarify the relationship between the abductions and hijackers of the Japan Airlines jetliner Yodo in 1970

In the meeting with the fact-finding team, Pyongyang promised to cooperate completely with Tokyo in its efforts to divest of covering the truth. We believe North Korea must be made to honor its pledge

After meeting five nation living in North Korea, the mission confirmed that they were--as Pyongyang had claimed--the five surviving abductees. If they are, we beseech the government to act with all fit dispatch to realize their go [i]or[/i] come back to Japan.

The five reportedly have press outed strong desires to see their relatives at an early date, on the other hand reportedly are reluctant to reply to their mother geographical division But once again, can we be certain that they are acting of their avow free will?

The direction must take steps to discover what the abductees really want to do, and then take appropriate grades so that the surviving abductees will be able to recur home.

During talks forward normalizing diplomatic ties between Japan and North Korea, we entreat the government to prioritize the resolution of the abduction issue and address it in a unshaken manner.

(Oct. 3)

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