North Korea confirms fate of abductee from south

SEOUL - North Korea has located a South Korean at the centre of a high-profile abduction case and has offered to arrange a meeting with the man's mother, the communist state said in a report in its official media on Thursday.

The South Korean, Kim Young-nam, is believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents when he was a teenager.

He later is believed to have married Megumi Yokota, a Japanese abducted by North Korea whose case has become a focal point for Japan's anger at Pyongyang for kidnapping its citizens.

The KCNA news agency said North Korea had informed South Korea in April that Pyongyang was looking into the matter. "Recently it succeeded in confirming his whereabouts," KCNA said.

"In this regard the North side decided to arrange his reunion with his mother in the South side at a special reunion between separated families and relatives to be held at Mount Kumgang Resort," it said.

Families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War are due to meet at the North Korean resort later this month. The two Koreas have held a number of reunions for separated families in recent years.

Relations between the rival states have been generally warming in recent years but hit a snag in late May over North Korea's abrupt decision to cancel a test run of trains over their heavily fortified border.

Yokota was 13 when North Korean agents kidnapped her in 1977. Kim went missing in 1978.

Japan says DNA testing indicates there is a high possibility that Kim fathered Yokota's child.

Pyongyang has said Yokota married a North Korean man in 1986 and gave birth to a daughter, who is now 18 and lives in the North. It also said Yokota committed suicide in 1994 while being treated for depression.

Tokyo has placed high priority on the abductee issue, making its resolution a condition for improving ties with Pyongyang. North Korea has admitted to abducting 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to help train its spies.

Yokota's mother recently met US President George W Bush and discussed the abduction issue.

South Korea, meanwhile, has opted for quiet diplomacy in an attempt to gather information about the more than 1000 South Korean civilian abductees and Korean War prisoners believed still to be alive in the North.

- REUTERS