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Thursday May 25, 9:31 PMThailand faces difficulty over alleged N. Korea abduction case(Kyodo) _ Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkon said Thursday that Thailand faces difficulties in dealing with North Korea over the case of a Thai woman who was allegedly abducted to North Korea in 1978.Kantathi told reporters after meeting with a relative of Anocha Panjoy and a representative of a Japanese abductee group that the government has been trying to discuss with North Korea about Anocha, but North Korea has insisted that she is not in the country. He also said the government will carefully deal with North Korea under appropriate methods because the two countries have had a good relationship for 30 years. "We have tried to discuss with North Korea for months about Anocha's case, but North Korea denies she was abducted to North Korea. However, we will try other ways to find out about Anocha with help from Japan, and the ways we use will not affect the good relationship with North Korea," Kantathi said. The minister said it may take time to find out about Anocha, like cases in which it took years to realize the repatriation of some Japanese abducted by North Korea. North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents abducted or lured to the country 13 Japanese nationals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Japanese government has officially recognized 16 Japanese, including the 13, as having been abducted by North Korea. Five of them have been repatriated to Japan. One of Anocha's relatives, Banjong Panjoy, said her family still has hope for her return if she is still alive. "With help from the Thai government and Japan, I think we still have hope. We'll never give up," Banjong said. Earlier this month, Kantathi visited Tokyo and met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso. They agreed to step up cooperation and sharing of information on past abductions of foreign nationals by North Korea. Reports of the possible abduction of the Thai woman emerged after former U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins, who deserted from the army to North Korea and stayed there 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. Jenkins married one of the repatriated Japanese abductees, Hitomi Soga, in North Korea. According to Anocha's friends, she disappeared during a trip to Macao in 1978. |
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