BackgroundIn 2001 North Korea had admitted to have abducted 13 Japanese (some say 17, Abe Shinzo said more than 800) during its self-admitted period of apparatchick craziness in the seventies and eighties.  Most had died, allegedly in accidents etc..  NK had returned the 5 survivors in 2002, and had signed with Tokyo the Pyongyang Declaration at the same time promising a new and more fruitful  relationship.