| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
advertisement | ||
Monday May 15, 4:37 PMLEAD: Japan, Thailand to boost cooperation on N. Korea abductions(Kyodo) _ (EDS: RECASTING WITH MORE INFO)Japan and Thailand agreed Monday to step up cooperation and sharing of information on past abduction of foreign nationals by North Korea, Japanese officials said. The accord was reached in separate talks held by visiting Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon with Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo. The Japanese government says 16 Japanese nationals have been abducted to North Korea, while a Thai woman is believed to have been taken to the North. Abe said after meeting Kantathi at the prime minister's official residence that he told the Thai foreign minister Japan intends to provide information, particularly on Anocha Panjoy, the Thai woman believed to be in North Korea. "It is also important for the international community to take up the (abduction) issue with North Korea," Abe said, adding Japan will call for cooperation on the matter at the Group of Eight summit in July in St. Petersburg, Russia. Kantathi told Abe and Aso that the Thai government wants to continue information sharing and exchange of views with Japan to try to resolve the issue, the officials said. Reports of the possible abduction of the Thai woman emerged after a U.S. Army deserter, who lived in North Korea for almost 40 years until 2004 and is now in Japan, said in his memoirs published last year that he had met a woman believed to be Anocha in the North. North Korea has denied having abducted the woman. The army deserter, Charles Jenkins, married one of the repatriated Japanese abductees, Hitomi Soga, in North Korea. |
|||
|
2005 Kyodo News © Established 1945. All Rights Reserved.
|