Kofu, Japan: It has been more than 30 years since the identical twin sister of Japanese teacher Misa Morimoto vanished, believed to have been abducted by North Korea.
Hopes for her return have often surged and ebbed since, tracing the ups and downs of ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
Misa Morimoto, identical younger twin of Miho Yamamoto, shows a photograph of Miho and herself on their 20th birthdays in 1984.
Photo: ReutersNow, Morimoto, 54, is cautiously optimistic that a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island, Singapore, on June 12 could bring news of the sister who resembled her so much that few could tell them apart.
In 2002, North Korea admitted it had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train them as spies. Five returned to Japan, though Tokyo suspects hundreds more may have been taken.
In 2014, Pyongyang promised new information about the Japanese it had kidnapped, but never made good on the pledge, shattering many relatives' hopes.