Concert Held in Hope of Reunion with Abductee Megumi Yokota

   Niigata, Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)--Former elementary and junior high school classmates of Megumi Yokota, who was kidnapped by North Korea more than 45 years ago, held a charity concert Saturday, when she turned 60, in the hope of reuniting with her at an early date.
   About 300 people gathered at the event, held in the city of Niigata, central Japan. In November 1977, Yokota, then 13, was abducted to North Korea on her way home from her junior high school in the city.
   In a video message sent to the concert, Yokota's mother, Sakie, 88, said: "These years are incredible. I have no idea at all how my daughter is spending her time."
   "I think that Japanese people face a need to bring back their compatriots," Yokota's brother, Tetsuya, 56, said at the event venue.
   Hitomi Soga, 65, a former abductee to North Korea, who returned to Japan with some other abduction victims in October 2002, and four former classmates of Yokota appeared in a debate held as part of the event. Soga, from the city of Sado in Niigata Prefecture, said, "I want (Yokota) to return home as early as possible and spend her second life with her family."

(2024/10/05-22:10)

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