MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti) – Japan has called on the international community to push North Korea to release the Japanese citizens it is holding, The Japan Times reported Thursday.
Human rights violations in North Korea should be addressed by the whole international community, and nothing has been done by North Korea since it agreed to reopen the investigation into the Japanese abductees, Eriko Yamatani, the Japanese minister in charge of the abductions issue said Wednesday at a symposium at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
Eriko Yamatani stated that the symposium is “a strategic opportunity” to attract international attention to human rights issues in North Korea, as reported by The Japan Times.
The international community should pressure North Korea to take the issue seriously and to release the abductees, Teruaki Masumoto, a senior member of an association of the families of abductees said at the symposium, as reported by The Japan Times.
In a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council Michael Kirby, the former head of the International Commission of Inquiry called North Korea’s human rights violations crimes against humanity, The Japan Times reports.
In 2008 North Korea promised to reopen the investigations, but did not follow through with that promise. In May 2014 North Korea once again agreed to investigate the whereabouts of the Japanese citizens abducted decades ago, but has still not produced any results.
