High-Ranking NK Defector Rejects Japan Trip

Hwang Jang-yop, a former high-ranking North Korean official who defected to South Korea in 1997, has turned down Japan's invitation to visit Tokyo next week for a speech on North Korea at Japan's parliament, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting an informed diplomatic source.

Hiroshi Nakai, the Japanese minister in charge of abduction issues, flew into Seoul Thursday night for a meeting with Hwang, who is under the protection of South Korea's intelligence unit.

But Hwang refused to meet the Japanese official, according to the source who requested anonymity.

"Hwang appears to think that it is still early to make a trip to Japan, concerned about the possibility that it will be used for political purposes," the source was quoted as saying.

Hwang is the highest-ranking defector from North Korea, having served as chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly and secretary of the powerful Workers' Party.

Since his defection in 1997, Hwang has been openly criticizing the North Korean regime's oppression of its 24 million people.

The Japanese government apparently believes Hwang's public comments on Pyongyang's past abduction of Japanese nationals will help put pressure on the communist nation and bolster solidarity among Japanese people on the abduction issue, one of the biggest political and diplomatic topics in Japan.

Japan says at least 16 Japanese citizens were kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2002, the North admitted to having kidnapped 13 Japanese people and allowed five of them to return home. It said the other eight had already died.