Statement by H.E. Ambassador YAMAZAKI Kazuyuki, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, at the High-level Plenary Meeting on Human Rights Abuses and Violations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

I thank the President of the General Assembly for convening this crucial meeting and all the briefers for their insightful remarks. I deeply appreciate Ms. Kim and Ms. Kang for bravely sharing their personal and heartbreaking experiences.
 
A decade after the Commission of Inquiry (COI) highlighted human rights violations in the DPRK, Japan is deeply concerned that grave violations continue and the situation has deteriorated even further, as today’s speakers have emphasized.
 
During Japan’s most recent term on the Security Council, discussions in June last year and in August 2023 on the situation in the DPRK underscored that its human rights violations are also inextricably linked with the building up of its military capabilities, including the pursuit of unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programmes. Essential resources are being diverted for this purpose at the expense of the peoples' welfare, despite their significant unmet needs.
 
Furthermore, this disregard continues by engaging in unlawful military cooperation with Russia, including through sending its soldiers to fight against Ukraine, which constitutes a clear violation of international law, including the UN Charter, and in the procurement of its weapons and ammunition.
 
Japan strongly urges Pyongyang to take tangible measures to address serious human rights violations, cease its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, halt its military cooperation with Moscow and fully comply with all relevant Security Council resolutions and return to dialogue.
 
Mr. President,
 
I must also draw attention to a grave human rights violation: the abductions of Japanese citizens, including Ms. Yokota Megumi, who was abducted by North Korean agents in Niigata 47 years ago, then just 13 years old. The act of international abductions infringes on a nation’s sovereignty and jeopardizes the well-being and safety of its citizens.
 
The abductions issue has been unresolved for decades.     

The abductees have remained trapped for almost half a century, while abductees and their families have advanced in age. Most recently, Mr. Arimoto Akihiro passed away in February at the age of 96 without being able to reunite with his daughter who was abducted by North Korea during her study in Europe in 1983. Megumi’s 89-year-old mother, Ms. Yokota Sakie has become the only living parent of the 12 abductees who are identified by the Government of Japan and still have not returned to Japan. In addition, there are many other cases in which the possibility of abduction cannot be ruled out. Literally speaking, there is no time left.
 
Japan's plight is shared by others. The COI report acknowledges that individuals from the Republic of Korea, China, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Romania, Singapore, and Thailand have also endured this hardship.
 
Japan strongly urges Pyongyang to immediately return all abductees and asks for the international community to unite in a concerted effort to secure their return.
 
I thank you.