hankyoreh

A South Korean believed kidnapped by North Korea decades ago claimed Thursday that he went to the North accidentally and denied being abducted by the communist country.

Kim Young-nam also said in a press conference here that his wife, Megumi Yokota, a Japanese citizen abducted to the communist state decades ago, killed herself, a repeat of Pyongyang's long-held claim that has been subsequently challenged by Tokyo and helped sour relations.

"For the first three years I was married to Megumi, we had a daughter and led a happy life. But then I started seeing signs of disorder from Megumi...unfortunately she never recovered and committed suicide in a hospital on April 13, 1994," Kim said in a news conference with a South Korean press corps at the North's scenic resort of Mount Geumgang.

"That is about all I can say on the issue of Megumi," Kim said.

The 45-year-old was reunited with his 82-year-old mother, Choi Gye-wol, and sister Young-ja, 48, for the first time in 28 years on Wednesday. Also present at the reunion were Kim's 19-year-old daughter Hye-gyeong, whose mother is the Japanese abductee, his second and current wife Park Chun-hwa, 31 and the couple's seven-year-old son, Chul-bong. The North has long claimed that the Japanese woman had suffered from depression and killed herself, after its leader Kim Jong-il admitted to kidnapping her and 12 other Japanese citizens in a 2002 meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

Tokyo, however, believes Yokota may still be alive in the communist North as DNA tests on her alleged remains handed over by Pyongyang in late 2004 proved that they belonged to someone else.

Pyongyang claims the Japanese tests were flawed, if not manipulated, in line with what it claims to be Tokyo's efforts to stage an international campaign against its communist regime.

Kim said the Japanese test results were "clumsy and childish" lies, saying he personally handed over Megumi's remains to Japanese officials visiting Pyongyang in November 2004.

He said he explained in details how his former wife died and decided to hand over her remains to the Japanese delegates because of their sincere requests.

"(But the Japanese government) came to make clumsy and childish assertions that the remains are fake," Kim said.

"This is an insult to both me and Megumi that is beyond all bearing and a human rights violation," he claimed.
Mt. Kumgang, North Korea, June 29 (Yonhap News)