(28 Apr 2006)
1. Wide shot of Jay Lefkowitz, US Special Envoy for North Korea at witness table
2. Committee Chairman Jim Leach meeting witnesses
3. Pan from congresswoman Diane Watson - House International Relations Committee - after her opening statement to wide of hearing
4. SOUNDBITE (English): Douglas Bereuter, Representative, Nebraska ( starts on close shot of Lefkowitz listening, continues to shot of witnesses, ends on mid shot of Bereuter):
"There''s a gathering momentum in this country between the AFL-CIO, Christian groups and legislators and human rights groups for trade sanctions against China unless we get some understand that there''s international norms of civilised behaviour. And one of the things you don''t do is when you have a father who has been shot and a mother who has been sent to a prison camp, you don''t round up the children to face their fate in North Korea where the penalty for leaving the fatherland is a criminal offence. And frankly, China does that."
6. Wide of witness table with witnesses
7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese): Sakie Yokota, Mother of girl allegedly kidnapped to North Korea:
"For 20 long, agonising years after Megumi disappeared while on her way home from junior high school, we didn''t know what had happened to her. It was 1997 when we finally learned that she had been kidnapped by North Korean agents."
8. Photographs of a young Megumi being held up in hearing
9. SOUNDBITE (Japanese): Sakie Yokota, Mother of girl allegedly kidnapped to North Korea:
"After years of lies and denials, at his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi in September of 2002, Kim Jong Il suddenly reversed himself and acknowledged the abduction of just 13 Japanese. However, the number of Japanese citizens that North Korea has abducted goes way beyond 13. Our list of suspected victims goes way beyond 450 cases. In the cast of most victims North Korea, to this day, refused to acknowledge the kidnapping."
10. Wide shot of wreath-laying ceremony at Korean War memorial
11. Wreath being put in place
12. Close-up of wreaths
13. Statues at Korean War memorial
STORYLINE:
The man charged with working to bring transparency to the North Korean government from the US State Department testified on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Before leaving, Jay Lefkowitz received several warnings from Congressmen that his office wasn''t doing enough to help people allegedly kidnapped to North Korea, and refugees who fled North Korea for China.
Lefkowitz, the US special envoy for North Korean human rights, tried to defend some slowness by his office in answering questions from the committee.
"One of the things you don''t do is when you have a father who has been shot and a mother who has been sent to a prison camp, you don''t round up the children to face their fate in North Korea where the penalty for leaving the fatherland is a criminal offence," Douglas Bereuter, the Representative of Nebraska said.
In dramatic testimony, the mother of a girl who has become the symbol of anger over Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea told Congress on Thursday that time was running out to save her daughter and other victims she believes are still alive.
"For 20 long, agonising years after Megumi disappeared while on her way home from junior high school, we didn''t know what had happened to her. It was 1997 when we finally learned that she had been kidnapped by North Korean agents," Sakie Yokota said.
Yokota told the hearing by two House International Relations subcommittees that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il''s recent acknowledgement of 13 abductions was not accurate.
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