Bush says committed to solving Japan abductee issue

WASHINGTON, Apr 27 (Reuters) US President George W Bush today worked to dispel Japanese concerns that he has gone soft on North Korea, backing Tokyo's demand for a resolution to the problem of Japanese abducted by the North.

Worries simmer in Tokyo that a US decision to engage with North Korea might isolate Japan in its insistence that it will provide no aid for Pyongyang until progress is made toward resolving a feud over the abductees, who were taken to North Korea to train spies decades ago.

Bush met last year with Sakie Yokota, whose 13-year-old daughter Megumi was kidnapped on her way home from school 30 years ago and has since become the iconic face of the abductees.

Pyongyang has said that Megumi hanged herself in 1994.

Bush met with with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who owes much of his popularity to a tough stance toward Pyongyang, and afterward said the Feb. 13 agreement under which North Korea agreed to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in return for energy aid and security assurances was the correct diplomatic path to take.

''I wouldn't call that soft. I'd call that wise diplomacy,'' Bush said in response to a Japanese reporter's question that accused Washington of going too easy on Pyongyang.

''Any discussion about ways forward should not obscure my strong sentiment about the abductee issue,'' he said at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

Referring to Sakie Yokota's visit last year, Bush said: ''It broke my heart to be in the presence of a Japanese mother whose love for her daughter has not diminished over time and whose grief is sincere and real.

''I will never forget her visit, and I will work with my friend and the Japanese government to get this issue resolved.'' Reuters AGLGC2356