北朝鮮・ハン容疑者、地村夫妻の監視役も…拉致後１年

　蓮池薫さん（４９）夫妻拉致事件で、拉致を指示したとして新潟県警などが国外移送目的略取容疑で逮捕状を取った北朝鮮の諜報（ちょうほう）機関「対外情報調査部」の指導員ハン・クムニョン容疑者が、蓮池さん夫妻だけでなく、地村保志さん（５１）夫妻の監視役も務めていたことがわかった。

　警察当局の調べによると、ハン容疑者は、蓮池さん夫妻が１９７８年７月に拉致された際、清津（チョンジン）の招待所で出迎え、朝鮮語や主体（チュチェ）思想を教えながら、監視役を担っていた。その２か月ほど後、同容疑者は、平壌の招待所で別々に暮らしていた地村さん夫妻のもとを訪れ、約１年間、蓮池さん夫妻と同様に監視役を務めていたという。

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Cheney Meets N.Korea Abductee's Parents in Japan

By REUTERS
Published: February 22, 2007

Filed at 2:00 a.m. ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - He didn't have time to meet Japan's defense minister, who has questioned the Iraq war, but Vice President Dick Cheney squeezed in a chat on Thursday with a couple whose daughter was kidnapped by North Korea decades ago.

In a nod to the importance of the abductees issue for Japan, Cheney met Sakie and Shigeru Yokota, whose 13-year-old daughter Megumi was kidnapped one November day 30 years ago.

Megumi Yokota is one of several Japanese who were abducted by North Korean agents to help train spies in language and culture.

Their tragic tale is known to almost every Japanese but has garnered relatively little attention in the United States, despite unflagging efforts by the relatives to take their campaign abroad.

``I can identify, in fact the whole world can identify, with the emotion of this tragedy,'' Cheney was quoted by a U.S. official as telling the Yokotas. ``We'll do what we can to help.''

The couple gave Cheney a letter asking President Bush not to remove North Korea from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism until the abductees dispute is settled, Kyodo news agency reported.

Sakie Yokota last year met Bush and testified before U.S. lawmakers. ``I'm just one mother, trying to get her child, who's been caught up in a kind of no-man's land, back to the place where she belongs,'' she told Reuters in November.

The United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia agreed in a deal forged in Beijing last week that Pyongyang would receive fuel aid in return for closing and eventually disabling its nuclear facilities.

The agreement also says the United States will begin the process of removing North Korea from the list of states Washington believes are sponsoring terrorism.

REFUSING AID

Abe has refused to give aid to North Korea unless there is progress toward settling the dispute over the abductees -- an emotive topic for many Japanese and one central to Abe's own political agenda.

Cheney expressed understanding for Tokyo's tough stance during his visit, but critics have said Japan's position could isolate it if progress is made toward denuclearisation.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitted in 2002 that Pyongyang's agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens.

Five have since returned to Japan.

Pyongyang has said that Megumi Yokota hanged herself in 1994 and that the other seven are also dead. But Tokyo wants better information about the fate of the eight and others it says were also kidnapped, and insists any survivors be sent home.

In talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Japanese leaders on Wednesday, Cheney sought to reassure Washington's close ally that a U.S. troop increase in Iraq would quell violence, and to coordinate policies toward North Korea.

Having wrapped up his visit to Japan, which has backed the U.S. strategy in Iraq, Cheney left for Guam and was to head later for Australia, where he will meet Prime Minister John Howard, another supporter of the war.

The trip came as Britain this week announced a timetable for the withdrawal of a quarter of its troops from Iraq.

Cheney Meets N.Korea Abductee's Parents in Japan - New York Times

蓮池さん夫妻拉致指示、男２人に逮捕状

　蓮池さん夫妻を拉致するよう実行犯に指示したとして、新潟県警は２２日、北朝鮮の工作機関の男２人の逮捕状をとりました。

　「ハン・クムニョン」と呼ばれる元指導員。そして、「キム・ナムジン」と呼ばれる元指導員。新潟県警は２２日、蓮池さん夫妻を拉致するよう実行犯に指示していたとして、北朝鮮の工作機関「対外情報調査部」の男２人の逮捕状をとりました。

　調べによりますと、キム元指導員は蓮池薫さんに「お前を連れて来いと言ったのは私だ。女性を狙うつもりだったが、一緒にいたお前も拉致した」と打ち明けていたということです。

　一方、ハン元指導員は、実行犯のチェ・スンチョル容疑者から拉致成功の報告を無線で受けたと見られています。

　警察が拉致の指示犯の逮捕状をとったのは、これが初めてです。（22日18:00）

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