Abductee Issue News Today

Japanese prime minister and one last point on the abductee issue, the trump administration has made it clear when its touting what it says are its accomplishments with north korea, it argues that north korea has suspended nuclear tests that it has suspended launches of missiles that thats not entirely true. and that it got american abductees returned home. thats one of the things that the trump administration applauded itself for. we have to recall that one of those people was otto warmbier that...

President trump is able to reach some kind of diplomatic solution with pyeongyang, tokyo is making it clear that it wants the abductee issue to be somewhere in that potential scenario. >> lets bring in pamela brown. pam, i would imagine that this particular issue is something that would resinate with donald trump given that he has advocated and secured the release of the remains of u.s. soldiers that died in korea. this is something that he can relate to. >> thats absolutely right and he said th...

That chairman kim gets and it willing to do what it takes to get the second enormous -- >> to do this in front of the prime minister. trump will do anything to make a deal land avoid short range ballistic missiles and thats what hes doing right now. the japanese are the only ones that will not talk to kim. they say well talk to you when denuclearization is handled. when the abductee issue is handled and when the short range missile issue is there and they are there saying we toiled so. >> its in...

T as i understand it, the japanese, it was a priority for them to include this in this four day state visit. explain to me how, where -- explain to me the significance of this meeting for the japanese side. >> this is the second time he met with families of the japanese abducted by north korea. he said it was an honor to conduct this meeting but this abductee issue is clearly one of the thorny problems between north korea and the outside world that is in addition to north koreas arsenal of nucle...

And is about to, frankly, perhaps lose out on everything, especially going into the g7 summit. so it is concerned about losing out potentially in every scenario. >> besides being eclipsed, perhaps, by another country on the peninsula, what are some of these other concerns that shinzo abe has? >> it is about security. until now in the six-party process, it had secured a position in terms of all of its bilateral issues related to north korea. its abductee issue. its bilateral issues with north kor...

Office, and i think hes willing. he is not a politician that really basks in the spotlight. i think he is willing to play the so-called bad cop role if you will in this so long as japan gets something out of the negotiations in the end. i mean, theyve been talking about the abductee issue, citizens of japan were abducted by north korean agents in the 70s and 80s. and that has been a very high profile topic. donald trump met with the families of the abductees when he was here last year. so this h...

>> do you think any japanese lawmakers would ask sony not to criticize north korea? >> maybe. >> reporter: north korea still maintains this unofficial embassy in tokyo. while the nations have no formal diplomatic ties, pyongyang has some ties. while north korea may seem distant to most of the world, its military launches project tiles into the sea of japan. pea you pyongyang forced the abductees to train north korean spies. >> the abductee issue is extremely sensitive in japan. >> reporter: toky...

Diplomatic ties, pyongyang does have some influence through political and business back channels. >> they want to stop the movie. >> reporter: while north korea may seem distant to most of the world, its military routinely launches projectiles into the sea of japan. pyongyang also admitted to kidnapping japanese citizens in the 70s and 80s, forcing the abductees to train north korean spies. >> the abductee issue is extremely politically sensitive in japan. >> reporter: tokyo and pyongyang are in...

Abducted by north korea several decades ago and still being held in captivity there. the president said the abductee issue will come up. its important to him because its important to shinzo abe. abe also stressed the need to hold a hard line against north korea until they give up their nuclear program. listen. >> just because north korea is responding to dialogue, there should be no reward. maximum pressure should be maintained. and actual implementation of denuclearization will be a demand. >> ...