Photo/Illutration U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Sakie Yokota, middle, mother of North Korea abduction victim Megumi Yokota, on Oct. 28 at the State Guest House in Tokyo. (Pool)

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to “do everything within our power” to resolve the issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens in a meeting with relatives of the missing on Oct. 28.

Trump and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met for about three minutes in Tokyo with members of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea.

He posed for a commemorative photo with 14 people, including Sakie Yokota, 89, the mother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in Niigata Prefecture in 1977 when she was 13 years old.

Trump said, “We always have this in mind.”

When Yokota and others handed Trump a blue ribbon badge that symbolizes the movement to rescue the abductees, Trump said he would wear it, according to the group.

Afterward, the association held a 20-minute meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Takuya Yokota, 57, Megumi’s brother who heads the group, appealed for the United States to urge North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to release all abductees if a U.S.–North Korea summit is held, according to the association.

“I felt that (Trump) is actively thinking about the abduction issue,” Sakie Yokota said after the meeting. “I sincerely pray that he will speak well with Kim and inspire him to return (the victims).”

When asked by reporters during the meeting whether he thought he could discuss the abduction issue with Kim, Trump said: “We’ll see what’s going to happen. We haven’t done anything. We’ve been so busy. But we’ll be discussing it.”

Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first term as U.S. president, has shown a positive attitude toward resuming contact since his second inauguration in January this year.

“The president has expressed interest in meeting with Kim Jong Un but that is not on the schedule for this trip,” a senior U.S. government official said on Oct. 24.

However, Trump told reporters on Oct. 27, “I’d love to meet with him, if he’d like to meet.”

When asked whether he would extend his trip for a meeting with Kim, Trump said: “I hadn’t thought of it. (South Korea) is our last stop so it’s pretty easy to do.”

(This article was written by Jin Hirakawa and Sotaro Hata.)

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