| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
advertisement | ||
Friday March 23, 12:04 AMMegumi Yokota film to have British TV premiere(Kyodo) _ A documentary about a 13-year-old Japanese girl abducted by North Korean agents will have its British TV premiere on Thursday.The award-winning "Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story" will be screened on BBC TV, much to the delight of the Japanese Embassy in London which wants to heighten public awareness about the issue in Europe. An embassy spokeswoman said, "We consider it very important that more British people will get the chance to know the issues as a result of the film being broadcast on BBC Four." The embassy said it hoped that the response from viewers would force the international community to put even greater pressure on North Korea to come clean about what exactly happened to 12 of the 17 Japanese citizens who Tokyo claims were snatched and taken to North Korea. The documentary tells how Yokota, a junior high schooler from Niigata, was whisked away from her hometown on Nov. 15, 1977 on her way home from school. She was one of several Japanese taken by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s. It is thought that their role was to train North Korean spies in Japanese language and mannerisms. The movie shows her parents' struggle to find out what happened to their daughter and their fight to raise the issue with politicians. Pyongyang eventually admitted abducting Yokota but claims she later committed suicide. Her parents believe she is still alive. Speaking to Britain's Sunday Telegraph recently, Yokota's father, Shigeru, said, "People may not know about this issue but if they see the film I think they can see it's an unforgivable thing for a country to kidnap a 13-year-old girl. It has been 30 years now since our daughter was taken and we just want her back." Her mother, Sakie, said, "She's (Megumi) 42 now. Megumi has a right to her freedom and we have a right to our daughter. We want the world to know that it wasn't just one person who came and took her away. It was a state crime, ordered by the North Korean leadership." The film had its British premiere at the Japanese Embassy in London in February and was well received by the audience. The documentary has also won rave reviews in the United States and picked up several awards. It has also been screened in France, Switzerland and Brussels, following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's European tour, when he attempted to raise the issue. BBC Four is one of the corporation's less popular TV channels but can be picked up by most homes in Britain. Its output tends to focus on the arts, news, foreign films and documentaries. |
|||
|
2005 Kyodo News © Established 1945. All Rights Reserved.
|