A former North Korean spy had an emotionally-charged meeting with the family of Yaeko Taguchi, a Japanese woman abducted by the communist nation in the 1970s and asked them not to lose hope for a reunion.
"I have no doubt your mother is still alive. Be hopeful," Kim Hyun-hui was quoted as telling Taguchi's son in Japanese by Yonhap News Agency.
She wiped away tears with a handkerchief during the brief conversation in front of the media. Kim was once sentenced to death for planting a bomb on a South Korean airliner in 1987 that killed all 115 people on board but was later pardoned.
More than 100 reporters, photographers and camera crew, many from Japan, were allowed to cover only the first five minutes of the meeting at a huge room in the Busan convention center. The venue was heavily guarded by police commandos for security.
It marked the first time that Kim, who is now a housewife with two children, appeared for a public event since 1991, when she provided details about the attack on the airliner in a nationally-televised press conference.
Kim asked for the meeting with Taguchi's family to tell them about her life in North Korea. North Korea said earlier that Taguchi died in 1986 in a car accident. Taguchi was Kim's Japanese language instructor from 1981-1983.
Kim told Taguchi's son Koichiro Iizuka, who was a baby when his mother was abducted and is now 32, that "you must have been lonely."
Speaking to Shigeo Iizuka, 70, Taguchi's elder brother, Kim said "You resemble her." The three moved to another room for a closed-door meeting. They are scheduled to hold a joint press conference shortly after their talks.
It was unclear whether Wednesday's meeting will provide new clues to Taguchi's fate but it is likely that Japanese authorities will seek to rekindle public interest in the abduction issue.
Taguchi is one of 17 Japanese citizens whom Tokyo says were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2002, the North acknowledged abducting only 13 Japanese citizens and allowed five of them to return home, saying the others had died.
Tokyo has demanded that Pyongyang account for all of the abductees, setting it as a precondition for the normalization of diplomatic ties and the delivery of its share of energy aid promised under a six-nation deal.