12:50 AM
17 March 2014
Shigeru and Sakie Yokota have campaigned for years to find out what happened to Megumi
North Korea says she married a South Korean abductee and had a daughter before killing herself in 1994.
Her parents were allowed to meet their grandchild for the first time in Mongolia last week, Japan's foreign ministry announced over the weekend.
Megumi Yokota was one of a number of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 80s to train North Korean spies.
She was snatched by agents in the Japanese city of Niigata and taken to North Korea by boat.
Her parents, Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, have campaigned for years to find out what happened to her.
North Korea returned what it said were her remains in 2004 but DNA tests subsequently disputed that claim.
Japan's foreign ministry announced on Sunday that Mr and Mrs Yokota spent several days last week with their grand-daughter in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Batur.
The couple said of their meeting with 26-year-old Kim Eun-gyong: "It was a miraculous event and it provided great pleasure."
"We strongly hope that the meeting will pave the way for rescuing all the abductees," Kyodo news agency quoted a statement from them as saying.
The abduction issue remains a key sticking point in the relationship between Japan and North Korea, who do not have diplomatic ties.
Shigeru and Sakie Yokota have campaigned for years to find out what happened to Megumi
The parents of a Japanese girl abducted by North Korea have described a meeting with her daughter as "miraculous".
Megumi Yokota was kidnapped by North Korean agents on her way home from school in 1977, when she was 13. North Korea says she married a South Korean abductee and had a daughter before killing herself in 1994.
Her parents were allowed to meet their grandchild for the first time in Mongolia last week, Japan's foreign ministry announced over the weekend.
Megumi Yokota was one of a number of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 80s to train North Korean spies.
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Japan's missing
- Snatched in the 1970s and 1980s
- Used as cultural trainers for North Korean spies
- Five allowed home in 2002
- Five children subsequently freed from North Korea
- Eight said to be dead, others missing - but Japan does not accept this
North Korea has returned five
such abductees and says the others have died, but Japan says it has
failed to provide adequate proof of their deaths.
The case of Megumi Yokota, as the youngest of the abductees, has huge resonance in Japan. She was snatched by agents in the Japanese city of Niigata and taken to North Korea by boat.
Her parents, Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, have campaigned for years to find out what happened to her.
North Korea returned what it said were her remains in 2004 but DNA tests subsequently disputed that claim.
Japan's foreign ministry announced on Sunday that Mr and Mrs Yokota spent several days last week with their grand-daughter in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Batur.
The couple said of their meeting with 26-year-old Kim Eun-gyong: "It was a miraculous event and it provided great pleasure."
"We strongly hope that the meeting will pave the way for rescuing all the abductees," Kyodo news agency quoted a statement from them as saying.
The abduction issue remains a key sticking point in the relationship between Japan and North Korea, who do not have diplomatic ties.
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