U.N. Officials' Messages Broadcast on Radio to Abductees in N. Korea

Tokyo, March 3 (Jiji Press)--Messages by U.N. officials have been broadcast since February on a radio program addressing Japanese nationals who were abducted by North Korea decades ago.

The two messages are by Grazyna Baranowska, vice chairperson of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and James Heenan, who heads the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul.

The four-minute messages are delivered in English, Japanese and Korean on the shortwave radio show "Shiokaze."

In her message, Baranowska states that the abductions are "not a relic of the past," and remain "a brutal contemporary crime."

"The working group stands at the front line, transforming pain into global advocacy and silence into action," she notes.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]