Japan abductee worried as family reunion approaches
Japan abductee worried as family reunion approaches
Agencies, Tokyo/Jakarta
A Japanese woman abducted to North Korea decades ago said on Tuesday she was looking forward to a reunion with her family living in Pyongyang, but that she was worried about whether they could ever live together again.
Hitomi Soga will be reunited with her husband, Charles Jenkins, a former U.S. army sergeant who Washington says is a deserter, and their two North Korean-born daughters in Indonesia on Friday.
"The day that the four of us can hug each other is approaching, it's right in front of us. I am happy and relieved," Soga, 45, told a news conference.
Meanwhile, Indonesia expressed hope that a planned reunion between a U.S. army deserter who lives in North Korea and his Japanese wife would promote peace on the Korean peninsula.
An Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said Soga was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Thursday while Jenkins and their daughters would arrive on Friday.
"The Korean peninsula issue also involves a lack of trust. Who knows, by facilitating the reunion, which is a humanitarian issue, we can help promote trust," the spokesman told AFP.
He did not say how long the family would stay in Indonesia.
Soga and four other abductees returned to Japan in October 2002 following a landmark visit by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to North Korea. The five had spent a quarter century in the secretive communist state.
Koizumi won the release of the children of the abductees in his second visit to Pyongyang in May this year, but Jenkins stayed behind with the couple's daughters for fear he would be handed over to the U.S. military for court martial if he came to Japan.
Soga's plight has mesmerized Japan, and Tokyo has been asking Washington to consider special treatment for Jenkins so the family can live together in Japan, but U.S. officials have said he would be dealt with according to U.S. military rules.
"I am worried about what comes after seeing them," a solemn- looking Soga said, adding she knew her 64-year-old husband was concerned that U.S. authorities would take him into custody.
"But I hope that in the end, the four of us can live together in Japan."
Japan and North Korea agreed on the family reunion in Jakarta as Indonesia and the United States do not have an extradition treaty. How long the family will get to spend together is unclear, although the stay may stretch for weeks or months.
Jenkins and the two daughters will be accompanied by North Korean officials.
The United States says Jenkins defected while on patrol in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, and analysts have said President George W. Bush was unlikely to pardon him in an election year out of concern of losing the veterans vote.
The Jenkins saga has gripped a sympathetic Japanese public and a reunion could improve Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's flagging popularity ratings before upper house elections on Sunday.