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(born 5 October 1964 ~ ) is a Japanese woman who was abducted by a North Korean agent in 1977, when she was a thirteen-year-old junior high school student. She was one of at least 17 Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The North Korean government has admitted to kidnapping Yokota, but has said that she died in captivity. Yokota's parents and others in Japan believe that Yokota is still alive in North Korea and have waged a public campaign seeking her return to Japan.〔 ==History== Yokota was abducted on November 15, 1977 at the age of thirteen while walking home from school in her seaside village in Niigata Prefecture. North Korean agents reportedly dragged her into a boat and took her straight to North Korea to a facility in which North Korean spies were taught about South Korean customs and practices. There she was taught the Korean language. Also at the facility were two South Korean high school students, aged 18 and 16, who had been abducted from South Korea in August 1977. In August 1978, three more 16-year-old South Korean students were abducted from South Korea and taken to the facility. The three included Kim Youngnam, who would reportedly later marry Yokota.〔Kyodo News, "(Megumi Yokota taken to spy training center soon after abduction: South Korean source )", ''Japan Times'', 27 October 2015〕 After learning Korean, Yokota was apparently forced to help train North Korean spies to pass as Japanese citizens. In January 1997, information about Megumi's abduction was disclosed to Yokota's parents by Tatsukichi Hyomoto, a secretary to a Diet member Atsushi Hashimoto, by a phone call.〔(Movie Review - Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story ) ''Efilmcritic'', 23 April 2006.〕 In 2002, North Korea admitted that she and others had been abducted, but claimed that she had committed suicide on March 13, 1994 (originally announced as 1993 and later corrected to 1994) and returned what it said were her cremated remains. Japan stated that a DNA test proved they could not have been her remains, and her family does not believe that she would have committed suicide. She is believed to have been abducted by Sin Gwang-su.〔 In the North in 1986, Yokota married a South Korean national, Kim Young-nam (Korean: 김영남, Hanja: 金英男), likely also abducted, and the couple had a daughter in 1987, Kim Hye-gyong (김혜경, whose real name was later revealed to be Kim Eun-gyong, 김은경). In June 2006, Kim Young-nam, who has since remarried, was allowed to have his family from the South visit him, and during the reunion he confirmed Yokota had committed suicide in 1994 after suffering from mental illness, and had had several attempts at suicide before. He also claimed the remains returned in 2004 are genuine. His comments were however widely dismissed as repeating the official Pyongyang line, with Megumi's father claiming that Young-nam was not allowed to speak freely during his interview in Pyongyang, stating that "he was likely restricted in terms of what he can say" and that "it looked as if he were reading a script". In June 2012, Choi Seong Ryong, head of a support group for relatives of South Koreans abducted to the North, said that he had obtained North Korean government documents which stated that Yokota had died from "depression" on 14 December 2004.〔 It is widely believed, especially in Japan, that Yokota is still alive. In November 2011 a South Korean magazine, ''Weekly Chosun'', stated that a 2005 directory of Pyongyang residents listed a woman, named Kim Eun Gong, with the same birth date as Yokota. The directory gave Kim's spouse's name as "Kim Yong Nam".〔Jiji Press, "Abductee Megumi Yokota said alive in 2005: report", ''Japan Times'', 8 November 2011, p. 2.〕 Japanese government sources verified on 18 November 2011 that they had reviewed the directory but had yet to draw a conclusion on the identity of the woman listed. Sources later indicated that Kim Eun Gong was actually Yokota's 24-year-old daughter. In 2012, it was reported that North Korean authorities were keeping Kim under strict surveillance. In August 2012, Choi Seong Ryong stated that sources in North Korea had told him that Kim Eun Gong had been placed under the supervision of Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yeo Jong, and that the North Korean government may be planning on using Yokota's daughter as a "card" in future negotiations with Japan. Reportedly, in 2010 the North Korean government offered to allow Yokota's parents to visit Kim Eun Gyong in a country "other than Japan" but the Japanese government and Yokota's parents were wary about the offer, suspecting it as a ploy by the North Korean government to seek an advantage in ongoing diplomatic negotiations. In March 2014, the parents of Megumi Yokota met their granddaughter, Kim Eun Gyon for the first time in Mongolia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Megumi Yokota」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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