Former N. Korean agent says Japanese abductee Taguchi still alive+

BUSAN, South Korea, March 11 Kyodo - Former North Korean agent Kim Hyon Hui met with the brother and son of Japanese
abductee Yaeko Taguchi on Wednesday in the South Korean city of Busan, saying
she believes Taguchi is still alive.

''I have no doubt your mother is still alive. I'm sure (you will be able to
meet her) if you continue to make the effort,'' Kim told them in Japanese. Kim
is believed to have learned from Taguchi.
The meeting between the 47-year-old Kim and Shigeo Iizuka, 70, and Koichiro
Iizuka, 32, was organized by the Japanese and South Korean governments as both
Taguchi's kin and Kim wanted to meet the other party.
''I am happy to have been able to live to this historic day. I thank (Kim) for
clearly stating that (she thought) my sister is still alive,'' Shigeo told a
press conference that followed the 90-minute-long closed-door meeting.
''(My) five-year-long wish has come true,'' said Koichiro, who had sent a
letter addressed to Kim five years ago, requesting to meet her.
While citing that she never received the letter, Kim said in the press
conference that she had been ''so excited these past several days that I could
not sleep. Koichiro gets his looks from his mother and is handsome. How much
better it would have been if (Taguchi) were here.''
Kim added that she had heard that Taguchi was married to someone ''in 1986, but
I never heard to whom.''
The former North Korean operative also told reporters that she does not believe
that Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota is dead, as the North Korean government
has said. Yokota was taken to North Korea from Niigata in 1977 when she was 13
years old.
Kim said although Yokota had been admitted to a hospital due to her mental
state, ''I was told that her condition was not that severe.''
At the outset of the meeting in the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, Kim
gave Koichiro a hug and told him that he looked ''just like (his) mother'' and
apologized for being unable to meet sooner.
Meanwhile, Shigeo and Koichiro gave Kim souvenirs from Japan, including a CD
album by Japanese singer Kenji Sawada, also known as ''Julie.'' This is Kim's
first public appearance since she got married in December 1997.
''(This meeting) has opened up possibilities for Japan and South Korea to work
together in settling the abduction issue,'' Shigeo told reporters.
The Japanese government had been requesting its South Korean counterpart to set
up the meeting between Taguchi's kin and Kim.
The administration of former President Roh Moo Hyun had been reluctant to hold
the meeting due to concerns that such actions could excite North Korea.
However, the administration of President Lee Myung Bak has been positive in
cooperating with Japan on the abduction issue.
Kim was convicted of the 1987 fatal bombing of a South Korean airliner but was
later freed under a presidential pardon. This is the first time Kim has met the
family of a Japanese abductee.
Shigeo and Koichiro arrived in South Korea on Tuesday. Koichiro had expressed
hope that the meeting with Kim would ''offer a ray of hope'' for other parties
in Japan and South Korea in settling the abduction issue.
''By establishing a relationship of trust with Kim, we may be able to get more
information about the abduction issue,'' Shigeo said prior to the meeting. He
also heads a group representing the families of Japanese abductees.
Kim, who has kept silent for years, was reported to have said last fall in an
interview and letters addressed to acquaintances that she did not believe North
Korea's explanation that Taguchi was dead.
Taguchi, who was kidnapped in June 1978 at the age of 22, is one of at least a
dozen Japanese abducted by North Korea and who remain missing, according to the
Japanese government.
North Korea has admitted to abducting her, but says she married abductee
Tadaaki Hara in 1984 and died in a transportation accident in July 1986. Japan
disputes the claim on the grounds that there has been information that Taguchi
may have married a Korean abductee after 1986.
Koichiro, an engineer at an information technology company in Tokyo, said he
has no memory of his mother because he was only 1 year old when she was
abducted. Koichiro was raised by Shigeo and his wife.
==Kyodo