Miyazaki: Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Saturday vowed to boost the government’s efforts for realizing a Japan-North Korea summit at an early date, in a bid to resolve the issue of Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals decade ago.

“Japan will step up its call on North Korea” to hold such a summit, Hayashi, also minister in charge of the abduction issue, told reporters after visiting a beach in the southwestern Japan city of Miyazaki where Tadaaki Hara was kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1980 at the age of 43.

“As the victims’ families are getting older, the abduction issue is a humanitarian issue with time constraints,” Hayashi said.

He also attended a rally hosted by the Japanese government and the prefectural government of Miyazaki on Saturday.

“In order to resolve the abduction issue, it is important for Japanese people to show their strong determination to realize the return of the victims as soon as possible, regardless of whether they have been officially recognized by the government (as abductees),” Hayashi told the rally.

The rally was also joined by Tetsuya Yokota, a younger brother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted to North Korea in 1977 at the age of 13 from Niigata Prefecture, central Japan.

JIJI Press