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2005年5月29日 (日)

米議会における日本人・韓国人拉致非難決議案(1)

救う会全国協議会ニュース(2005.5.29)より
■米議会で日本人・韓国人拉致非難決議案 英文原文

ヘンリー・ハイド米下院国際問題委員長らが、5月26日、北朝鮮による日本人、韓国人の拉致を「テロ行為であり重大な人権侵害」と非難する決議案
Condemning the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the abductions and continued captivity of citizens of the Republic of Korea and Japan as acts of terrorism and gross violations of human rights.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. HYDE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Condemning the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the abductions and continued captivity of citizens of the Republic of Korea and Japan as acts of terrorism and gross violations of human rights.
Whereas since the end of the Korean War, the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has kidnapped thousands of South Korean citizens and as many as a hundred Japanese citizens, including Rumiko Masumoto, Megumi Yokota, and Reverend Kim Dongshik; Whereas the forced detention and frequent murder of those individuals abducted by North Korea have caused untold grief and suffering to their families; Whereas on September 17, 2002, after considerable pressurefrom the Government of Japan, North Korean leader Kim Jongil admitted that agents of his government had abducted thirteen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s and assured Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that this would never happen again;Whereas despite assurances to the contrary, North Korea continues to order and carry out abductions, and, as recently as August 8, 2004, North Korean agents operating along the Chinese border kidnapped Ms. Jin Kyungsook, a former North Korean refugee and South Korean passportholder;Whereas the abduction policy of North Korea has been integral to its espionage and terrorist activities, and abductees have been kidnapped to work as spies, to train North Korean agents in language, accents, and culture,and to steal identities, as in the case of Mr. TadaakiHara;Whereas the Pyongyang regime used abductee Ms. Yaeko Taguchi as the Japanese language instructor for North Korean terrorist Kim Hyonhee, who was caught carrying a Japanese passport after planting a bomb on Korean Air Lines flight 858 that killed 115 people in 1987;Whereas many victims of North Korean abduction have beenseized during terrorist attacks, as in the hijacking of South Korean planes in 1958 and 1969, and, decadeslater, Pyongyang continues to hold twelve passengers of a hijacked Korean Air flight, including passenger Mr.Chang Jiyoung and flight attendant Ms. Song Kyonghi,who has since been allowed a brief visit by her South Korean family;Whereas North Korean agents have hijacked numerous South Korean ships and kidnapped the seamen and fishermen aboard the vessels, such as Choi Jongsuk, Kim Soonkeun,and ten other crewmen of the Dongjin 27, a ship that was seized in 1987, and Seoul estimates that hundredsof these abductees are still alive in North Korea;Whereas boat hijackings and the kidnapping of fishermen have devastated South Korean fishing communities, such as Nongso village on the southern island of Geoje, a communityof 210 people that lost 14 sons, husbands, and fathers when North Korea seized three ships in 1971 and1972;Whereas the North Korean authorities conspired with members of the Japanese Red Army, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States Department of State, to kidnap Keiko Arimoto, a young Japanesewoman studying abroad;Whereas according to the records of the Unification Ministryof the Republic of Korea, 486 South Korean abductees are still alive and being held in North Korea, and among these individuals are fishermen, seamen, airline passengers, teachers, students, and pastors; Whereas North Korean agents have abducted children, using unimaginable anguish to parents who live decades with the uncertainty of what has happened to their child,as in the cases of Takeshi Terakoshi, a thirteenyear old boy kidnapped from a fishing boat with his two uncles,and Lee Mingyo and Choi Seungmin, two seventeenyear old friends abducted off a beach in South Korea;Whereas North Korean agents kidnapped thirteenyear old Megumi Yokota, as she was walking home from school,and subsequently reported that she married and had a daughter in North Korea before committing suicide in1993, and that Megumi’s daughter remains there separated from her family in Japan;Whereas the Pyongyang regime has abducted a number of South Korean ministers who were bravely working to rescueNorth Koreans escaping on the underground railroad through China, including Reverend Ahn Seungwoon and Reverend Kim Dongshik, the latter of whose welfare is of particular importance to representatives of the State of Illinois; Whereas on April 21, 2005, the Seoul Central District Courtconvicted Chinese citizen Ryu Younghwa of assisting North Korean agents in the abduction of Reverend Kimand, further, that a Chinese court convicted a North Korean citizen of masterminding the abduction of Reverend Ahn, and deported the agent to North Korea in July 1997 following a twoyear prison term;Whereas some of the abductees have risked their lives in trying to escape North Korea, as in the case of South Korean fisherman Im Kukjae, who has twice attempted to escape since his kidnapping in 1987, and is now believed to be imprisoned in one of North Korea’s notorious laborcamps;Whereas the North Korean regime continues to deceive the international community regarding its ongoing abductions and has furnished false information concerning eight Japanese abductees, including suspicious accounts of their supposed premature deaths;Whereas the Government of North Korea has never convincingly accounted for Ms. Rumiko Masumoto and Mr.Shuichi Ichikawa, kidnapped by Pyongyang agents from a beach in Japan on August 12, 1978, and claims that Mr. Ichikawa drowned in the sea, despite his dislike ofswimming, and that the formerlyhealthy Ms. Masumoto died of a heart attack at the age of 27;Whereas North Korea claims abductees Mr. Toru Ishioka and Ms. Keiko Arimoto, who were kidnapped separately in Europe and later married, supposedly died together with their small daughter of gas poisoning in 1988, two months after they were successful in getting a letter out of North Korea to family members in Japan; Whereas although the Pyongyang regime claimed to returnthe alleged cremated remains of Mr. Kaoru Matsuki and Ms. Megumi Yokota to Japanese officials, both remains appear not to be authentic, and, according to Pyongyang, the bodies of the six remaining Japanese abductees have conveniently been washed away during flooding and cannot be recovered to verify the causes of their untimely deaths; Whereas despite the efforts of the Japanese Government, the Pyongyang regime continues to deny any knowledge of the abductions of Mr. Yutaka Kume, Mr. Minoru Tanaka,and Ms. Miyoshi Soga, the mother of another nowledged abductee, despite overwhelming evidence of North Korean collusion in their isappearances; Whereas North Korean abductions have not been limited to northeast Asia and many documented abductees have been kidnapped while abroad, such as Mr. Lee Chaehwan, a young MIT graduate student traveling in Austria, and Mr. Ko Sangmoon, a South Korean teacher kidnapped in Norway, making the issue of serious concern to the international community; Whereas there have been credible reports that North Korea may have abducted citizens from many other countries in addition to South Korea and Japan, including persons from China, Europe, and the Middle East;Whereas for more than fifty years, North Korea has held South Korean prisonersofwar captured during the Korean War in clear violation of Article III of the Korean War Armistice Agreement signed on July 27, 1953, and the South Korean Ministry of National Defense estimates that 542 captives are still alive in North Korea, according to testimony given before the National Assembly in February 2005;Whereas according to the testimony of prisonersofwar who have successfully escaped from North Korea, South Korean prisonersofwar have been forced to perform hard labor for decades, often in mines, and are harshly treated by the Pyongyang regime; Whereas after being forcibly held in North Korea for fiftyone years, South Korean prisonerofwar Han Mantaek, age 72, escaped to China, was detained by Chinese police, and forcibly repatriated to North Korea earlier this year, where he inevitably faced punitive measures and possible execution; and Whereas these South Korean prisonersofwar served under the United Nations Command, fighting along side their American and Allied fellow soldiers, and therefore are the direct concern of the Allied nations who contributed forces during the Korean War: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress

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