Teikyo University researchers who conducted DNA tests on two sets of cremated remains received from North Korea formally submitted reports to the police Monday stating that they are not those of two Japanese abductees.
The National Police Agency also conveyed the results to the families of the abductees -- Megumi Yokota and Kaoru Matsuki. The tests showed the ashes Pyongyang claimed were Yokota's in fact came from two different individuals and those that the North said might be Matsuki's contained the remains of five different persons.
Yokota was abducted from Niigata Prefecture at the age of 13 in 1977 and Matsuki was taken from Spain to North Korea in 1980 when he was 26. North Korea told Japan that Yokota hanged herself in 1994 and Matsuki was killed in a car accident in 1996.
They are among eight Japanese that Pyongyang has said died in North Korea after being taken there, but Japan remains unconvinced they are all dead.
The test results will be used as investigative materials and were not provided even to Yokota's parents.
The latest findings have intensified calls for Japan to break off talks with North Korea and impose economic sanctions to pressure the regime there to resolve the abduction issue.