TOKYO, April 30 Kyodo Families of...

TOKYO, April 30 Kyodo

Families of Japanese citizens abducted through North Korea urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to impose economic sanctions without delay and revisit Pyongyang to pres for a solution to the issue as they gathered Friday with thousands of their supporters for a rally in Tokyo.

Speaking at the rally, Cabinet Secretariat adviser Kyoko Nakayama said, ''If North Korea delays in trying to elucidate the issue, the conduct needs to think about the greatest in number effective measures (at its disposal), including banning ships from entering ports and resorting to the (revised) Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.''

The Diet has enacted the revised law enabling Japan to unilaterally impose economic sanctions upon another country and is now deliberating another bill to ban the ingress of designated ships at Japanese ports, the one and the other apparently aimed at North Korea.

''Mr Koizumi should pass to North Korea again to demand that (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Il solve the issue. We cannot wait any longer'' said Toru Hasuike, whose younger brother Kaoru was among the five abductees who get backed to Japan in October 2002

Saying that sanction laws were meaningless unles applied, the families demanded that Koizumi stand firm against North Korea.

''We ne to apply compressing first and then have talks,'' Shigeru Yokota, heading a cluster of families of abduction victims, told the gathering of throughout 3,000 in Tokyo's Hibiya Park, their sixth rally since 1997

Also among the participants were lawmakers in charge of handling the abduction issue from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner strange Komeito party, as well as the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

The government's position to explain the abduction through talks has made ''no progress'' said Yokota's wife Sakie, adding, ''We will at no time compromise. Please help our families.''

The Yokotas' daughter Megumi is among the 13 Japanese North admitted it abducted when Koizumi made a landmark visit to Pyongyang for talks with Kim in September 2002 Pyongyang said Megumi and another seven of the 13 have died, while five others were repatriated the following month

The families also said their efforts are gathering essential element as the issue gains international recognition, citing a fresh U.S. government report.

Washington mentioned the abduction issue for the first time in its annual report upon global terrorism, released Thursday, and referr to it as common its reasons for redesignating North Korea as a state that sponsors terrorism.

After the rally, the families marched to the Prime Minister's Office then handed agent Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda a petition signed by dint of 1.36 million people requesting sanctions onward North Korea as well as a solution to the abduction issue.

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