Mother of North Korean abductee urges government to have sense of mission over issue

Sakie Yokota, the mother of a child abducted by North Korea, called on the Japanese government to tackle the abduction issue with a sense of mission, as Thursday marked five years since the death of her husband, Shigeru.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, Sakie, 89, said she feels “great loneliness” after the death of her husband, whom she described as a “serious person.”

Following the abduction of their daughter Megumi in the city of Niigata in 1977 when she was 13, Shigeru launched a group of abductees’ families in 1997, serving as its first leader and working hard with Sakie to give lectures and collect signatures to call for an early resolution.