Red Cross

Japanese and North Korean Red Cross officials met in China on Monday in what Japan hopes will be a step toward talks on the return of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. The Red Cross meeting dealt with a different issue, the return of the remains of 21,600 Japanese who dies in Korea during the chaos at the end of World War II. North Korea and Japan have not had formal political talks since November 2012. I do remember this abduction issue being brought up to the media attention when I was a kid and I felt so bad for the family who is still waiting for their daughter to return from North Korea. In 2002, five kidnapped Japanese were successfully released but it is said that more than 12 Japanese people are still in North Korea waiting to be released..of course if they are still alive. I am glad that Japanese government is trying to resolve this issue in a diplomatic way because North Korea is like a bomb..they can explode anytime regardless of whether they really have the military power to go into another war. They probably do because all the foreign aids are reportedly buying them more weapons even though people from all over the world have been donating with hopes that donations will help starving people in North Korea. But I doubt this issue of abduction will ever be resolved because this has been going on for decades.