金元工作員来日 政府は「北」に拉致協議を促せ

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Jul. 22, 2010)
Nudge North Korea on abduction talks
金元工作員来日　政府は「北」に拉致協議を促せ（7月21日付・読売社説）

Kim Hyon Hui, a former North Korean agent responsible for the fatal 1987 bombing of a Korean Air passenger jet, has arrived in Japan. During her stay through Friday, Kim is scheduled to meet the families of several Japanese abducted decades ago by North Korean agents.
　１９８７年の大韓航空機爆破事件の実行犯、金賢姫・元北朝鮮工作員が来日した。２３日までの滞在中、拉致被害者の家族らと面会する。

The Japanese government asked the South Korean government to allow Kim--who now lives in the South--to visit Japan to "generate resentment toward the abductions and prick public awareness of the issue." The visit comes against the backdrop of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's hard-line stance against North Korea.
　「国民に拉致事件への憤りと関心を持ってもらう」ためにと、政府が韓国側に来日を働きかけてきた。拉致被害者の家族も要望していた。背景には、韓国の李明博政権が北朝鮮に厳しい姿勢をとっていることもある。

As part of her special spy training, Kim received lessons she said were "designed to transform her into a perfect Japanese" between 1981 and 1983 in North Korea. Kim's instructor was Yaeko Taguchi, who was abducted from Tokyo in 1978.
　金元工作員は、特殊訓練の一環として８１年から８３年にかけて「完全な日本人になりきる」教育を北朝鮮で受けた。その時の教師役が７８年に東京から拉致された田口八重子さんだった。

During questioning by Japanese and South Korean authorities, and in her autobiography, Kim gave detailed accounts on the lead-up to and execution of the KAL bombing. In March last year, she met with Taguchi's relatives in Busan, South Korea.
　金元工作員は、爆破事件までの過程を、日韓当局の聴取や手記の中で詳細に語っている。田口さんの家族との面会は、昨年３月に韓国・釜山で実現している。

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Little room for optimism

Kim later told Japanese officials she had met with Megumi Yokota, a Japanese abducted by Pyongyang's agents from Niigata in 1977.
We do not hold much hope that Kim will provide any new information that might shed light on the fate of the abductees.
　その後、拉致被害者の横田めぐみさんとも「北朝鮮で会ったことがある」と、新たな証言をしたものの、拉致被害者の安否にかかわる決定的な情報が明かされることは、期待しにくい。

Nevertheless, we hope Kim will sincerely engage with abductees' family members, who are desperate for any crumb of information about how their loved ones lived after being snatched away.
　それでも、拉致後の消息を少しでも知りたいと思う拉致被害者の家族の気持ちに、金元工作員は誠実に応えるべきだ。

The South Korean government has concluded a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank a South Korean Navy ship in March. This incident encapsulates just how North Korea's nature as a terrorist state has not changed one jot.
　哨戒艦沈没事件で、韓国政府が「北朝鮮の魚雷攻撃」と断定するなど、北朝鮮のテロ国家の本質は何も変わっていない。

North Korea has promised it would reinvestigate the fate of Japanese abductees that Tokyo believes could still be alive. However, Pyongyang has made no tangible progress on the reinvestigation, so bilateral negotiations on the issue have been locked in a stalemate for nearly two years.
　拉致問題でも拉致被害者の再調査の約束を実行しないまま、日朝間協議は２年近く進展がない。

Kim's visit to Japan is partly intended to demonstrate that the Democratic Party of Japan-led government is seriously tackling the abduction issue. However, we believe it is even more important to bring to light the entire picture of the abductions by North Korean agents and step up pressure on Pyongyang to return the abductees to Japan.
　金元工作員の来日は、民主党政権が拉致問題に真剣に取り組んでいる姿勢を示す狙いもあるのだろう。しかし、拉致の真相究明や被害者の帰国に向けた北朝鮮への働きかけを強めていくことこそ、重要である。

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Political decision

Kim's visit has not been without its problems.
　今回の来日には問題もある。

Firstly, Kim is a former death row inmate. She was sentenced to death in South Korea in 1989 for her role in the airliner bombing, but was freed by a presidential pardon in 1990.
　金元工作員は韓国で死刑判決を受け、その後、特別赦免となった元死刑囚だ。

From Japan's perspective, Kim is a suspect in a case involving a forged official document. She allegedly traveled with a fake Japanese passport under the name of Mayumi Hachiya in the airliner bombing.
同時に、日本からすれば、大韓機を爆破した際に日本人名義の偽造旅券を使った偽造公文書行使の容疑者である。

The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law bars foreign nationals who have been sentenced to one year or more in jail from entering Japan, with political prisoners as exceptions.
　出入国管理・難民認定法は、政治犯を除き、国の内外で１年以上の懲役・禁固刑を受けた外国人の入国を認めていない。

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba issued a special permit for Kim to enter Japan in line with a special provision under the immigration law.
今回は同法の特例の規定に基づき、千葉法相が特別に上陸許可を出した。

Japanese police would normally be expected to question Kim as a suspect, but they plan to forgo questioning her this time.
　警察は本来なら金元工作員を容疑者として事情聴取すべきなのだが、それも見送る方針だ。

The government may have made a political decision it believes best serves the national interest. But we think the government should give the public a detailed explanation of the reasoning behind its decision.

　こうした措置が国益にかなうという政治判断はあり得るが、その理由については、政府として詳しく説明すべきだろう。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 21, 2010)
（2010年7月21日01時36分 読売新聞）