TOKYO, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney wrapped up his visit to Japan by meeting with the parents of a girl abducted 30 years ago by North Koreans.
Shigeru and Sakie Yokota told reporters that Cheney told them that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged the United States to keep North Korea on its list of nations that sponsor terrorism, until issues surrounding the abduction are resolved, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Sakie Yokota has also met with U.S. President George Bush in the White House after the Japanese abduction issue.
North Korea has admitted kidnapping 13-year-old Megumi Yokata and 12 other Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, reportedly to teach language and culture and to use their identities, Kyodo said. Five of the abductees have been returned but North Korea said the other eight, including the Yokotas' daughter, are dead.
The Yokotas gave Cheney a letter to Bush in which they ask for "help in continuing to make sure the United States will not remove North Korea from the list of terrorist states until all abduction victims are returned."
