Japan's missing children: The lingering trauma of North Korean abductions

It was not until 2002, when the dictatorship in Pyongyang officially recognised some of the kidnappings.

Although North Korea finally admitted to 13 abductions and eventually sent some of these Japanese citizens home, Tokyo has evidence of 17 kidnappings. But there could have been many more; perhaps into the hundreds.  

One particular case has captured the public's imagination: that of Megumi Yokota. She was just 13 when she was kidnapped almost half a century ago from Niigata on the Japanese coast. She has never returned and Pyongyang say she died, but her family refuses to give up hope.

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