[imText1]Noel Paul Stookey (69), a member of a famous U.S. folk singers group “Peter, Paul & Mary” composed a song having been moved by the story of Yokota Megumi, a Japanese girl abducted to North Korea in 1977.
On the 20th, Stookey met in the presence of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Megumi’s parents where he released his new album and the title song, “Song for Megumi.”
Megumi’s mother Saki, tilted her head as she could not hold back her tears while the song was being sung. Japanese media report that this song has once again stirred feelings of sadness amidst the Japanese population regarding the issue of abductees and their families.
In an interview following the performance, Stookey expressed his hopes that this album would spread and expose violations of human rights both in North Korea and alike nations around the world. He also revealed that the profits from the album would be donated to efforts in resolving the abductees issue.
“You were a young girl when your dreams were broken. No time for goodbyes and no words were spoken… Return, Megumi, to me across the waves of the sea. Send me your spirit…”
Stookey hopes that North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Il may just one day hear the song on the radio and think about his own family.
Megumi was 13 years old when she was kidnapped by North Koreans from Nikata, Japan. At the 2002 Japan-North Korea Talks, Kim Jong Il professed that Megumi had indeed been abducted.
North Korea reports that in 1986, Megumi married North Korean Kim Chul Joon and together they had a daughter Eun Kyung (a.k.a. Hae Kyung), but in 1994, it is said that she committed suicide. Since then, North Korea returned Megumi’s ashes in to Japan in Dec 2004. However, Japan claims that the DNA. does not match that of Megumi, further intensifying Japan-North Korea relations.
※ TBS has the copyright of the footage.
