North Korean abductions in the 1970s: Brothers of missing Japanese girl speak out

Megumi Yokota vanished in 1977 when she was 13 years old. © FRANCE 24

In 1977, 13-year-old Megumi Yokota vanished from the Japanese coastal city of Niigata on her way home from school. Twenty-five years later, North Korea admitted that its agents had snatched her away, along with 12 other Japanese citizens, in order to train its spies. In a groundbreaking diplomatic move, Pyongyang returned five of them in 2002, but not Megumi, claiming she had committed suicide. Her brothers Takuya and Tetsuya Yokota, who have spent the last 45 years waiting for answers, speak to FRANCE 24. 

>> Watch our Revisited show: Japan's missing children: The lingering trauma of North Korean abductions