By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Former President Kim Dae-jung Thursday expressed deep regret over remarks made by a senior Japanese official who had questioned him about the timing of taking the issue of the 1973 abduction of Kim in Japan.
In response to Kim's remarks that the Japanese government did not carry out a proper investigation into the abduction, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said, ``If he really thinks so, why didn't he tell the Japanese government about it when he was serving as president.''
Machimura dismissed Kim's comment as ``strange.''
Kim's spokesman Choi Kyung-hwan denounced Machimura's remarks as irresponsible.
``It is very regretful that the Japanese government made such absurd remarks though it didn't do what it had to do,'' Kim's spokesman Choi Kyung-hwan said.
``Former President Kim has called for a thorough probe into his abduction and protection of human rights when he was opposition leader,'' Choi said. ``The Japanese government should have taken proper measures on the matter, given Kim made a state visit to Japan during his tenure.''
Last week, the South Korean government released a report admitting that the country's spy agency led Kim's kidnapping at a Tokyo hotel in 1973 with implicit permission of then President Park Chung-hee.
The South Korean government had previously denied any involvement by state agencies in the kidnapping case, of which the investigation later came to an end after political compromises between the two governments in 1973 and 1975.
Kim, then 47, was a pro-democracy leader against then Park's authoritarian rule. Kim survived with the help of the U.S. government. He was brought back to South Korea and put under house arrest.
Kim was elected president in December 1997 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his life-long dedication to promoting peace and democracy on the Korean Peninsula.
Tokyo called for Seoul's apology about the case which it sees as a violation of sovereignty.
South Korea expressed regret over the case through the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo earlier this week.
Some Japanese media raised a question about the timing of South Korea's announcement about the abduction issue. They said the Roh Moo-hyun government appears to have a political aim, with the presidential election approaching, of dealing a blow against the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) by bring up past wrongdoings committed by previous authoritarian governments.
The conservative GNP is a successor of Park's Democratic Republican Party.