(Provisional Translation)

Statement by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

October 15, 2002

Today we were able to welcome five Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea, Yasushi Chimura, Fukie Hamamoto, Kaoru Hasuike, Yukiko Okudo and Hitomi Soga, back to their native land of Japan. On behalf of the Government of Japan, I would like to express my heartfelt joy on this occasion. There is nothing more painful than being separated from your family members. My heart aches when I think of the sorrow and suffering experienced by the abductees and their families during this long period of more than two decades. I would like all five who came back today to relax and make themselves at home alone with their families in their hometowns. This is my ardent hope that this visit will ease, if only a little, the suffering that they have all endured until now. This time's temporary return to Japan has allowed us to take the first step towards resolving the problem of the abductions of Japanese nationals. Still, many issues remain unresolved, including getting the abductees back to Japan together with their family members and finding out what really happened to those whose survival has not been confirmed. We will resume normalization talks with North Korea on October 29th. In those talks, the Government will take up the issue of abductions as a highest priority item among the issues outstanding between Japan and North Korea. I intend to work on North Korea with persistence in the course of the normalization talks, aiming at the full resolution of the problem of abductions. In this I sincerely ask for the understanding of the people of Japan.