A South Korean taken to North Korea decades ago said on Thursday his Japanese wife - who was kidnapped by the North's agents - committed suicide in a case that has deepened Japanese anger towards its reclusive neighbour.
Pyongyang and Tokyo have been feuding over the fate of Japanese citizens abducted decades ago and says diplomatic ties cannot be established until the issue is resolved.
Kim Young-nam's remarks at a news conference echoed the official position of North Korea, which has said that his wife, Megumi Yokota, and seven other Japanese abducted in the 1970s and 1980s, died of illness, accidents or committed suicide. But Megumi's parents and the Japanese government have cast doubt on the suicide claim.
The tale of the 13-year-old Megumi Yokota's abduction on her way home from school in 1977 has become a focus for Japan's anger at Pyongyang for snatching its citizens to help train spies. Some Japanese politicians have called for a tougher stance, including the imposition of economic sanctions on North Korea.
Megumi's parents said they believed she was alive, and the comments were unlikely to convince the Japanese government to abandon its campaign to pry more convincing information about possible survivors from Pyongyang.
Kim told reporters at a mountain resort in North Korea that Yokota had attempted suicide several times and suffered from depression and schizophrenia. "I don't want to go into details or methods, but it was a suicide at the hospital," he said, adding any suggestion his wife was alive was a politically motivated attack against North Korea.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo that Japan wanted to keep negotiating with Pyongyang on the premise all the abductees were still alive.
"It is not possible in North Korea to speak one's own mind," he said. Shigeru Yokota, Megumi's father, called on the government to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang. "We believe Megumi is alive and we want the government to stand firm and negotiate. If we get nothing, we want the government to impose sanctions on North Korea," told reporters in Tokyo.
North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese. Five were repatriated and Pyongyang says the other eight, including Megumi Yokota, are dead.
Kim, whom Seoul believes to have been kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago when he was a teenager, said that he married Yokota in 1986 and she died in 1994. Kim, 44, was taking part in a reunion held at the resort in the North among separated North and South Korean families.
Seoul and Tokyo have said DNA testing of a young woman named Hye-gyong, Kim's family and Yokota's family indicated with a high degree of certainty that she was the couple's daughter.
Kim denied that he was abducted, but said he was in a row boat and fell asleep. The next thing he knew, he was in the middle of the sea and kind North Koreans came to his rescue. "I want to live quietly," he said. "I don't want my private life to become an international political issue," he said.