2 Former N. Koreans May Testify in Japan
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Japan is moving to invite Hwang Jang-yop, a former ranking North Korean official who defected to the South in 1997, and Kim Hyon-hui, a North Korean spy who blew up a South Korean passenger plane in 1987, to visit the country, a Japanese official said Friday.
Hiroshi Nakai, minister in charge of abduction issues, who arrived in Korea, Thursday, said that Hwang, if he accepts the invitation, will deliver a speech to the Diet.
It has yet to be revealed what Kim would do in Japan but international relations watchers speculate that her testimony on Japanese abductees could empower Japan to press North Korea.
She met with family members of Yaeko Taguchi, a Japanese abductee and her language teacher in North Korea, in Busan last March.
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama stressed that his administration will have ``no negotiations with North Korea'' if there is no progress on the abductee issue.
He plans to increase spending and personnel required to solve the issue.
The two North Koreans initially wished to visit Japan but Hwang turned down Japan's invitation to visit Tokyo next week for a speech, according to reports.
After Kim met with the Japanese representatives, she reportedly agreed to visit.
Diplomatic sources here said that the South Korean government has yet to decide whether or not to allow them to fly to Japan but it will review the official request from the minister.
Hwang served as chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly and secretary of the Workers' Party.
He walked into the South Korean Embassy in Beijing with his aide Kim Duk-hong, president of a North Korean trading firm there, and sought asylum.
Meanwhile, Kim is a former operative who placed a bomb aboard Korean Air Fight 858, which killed 115 people.
She was sentenced to death in March, 1989 but later pardoned by former President Roh Tae-woo.