The father of a Japanese girl abducted by North Korea in 1977 says he believes his daughter is still alive despite claims by the North that she died in 1993.

At a rally in Tottori Prefecture on Wednesday against the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korea, Shigeru Yokota said he still has hope that his daughter, Megumi, is alive.

Megumi Yokota’s mother said the Japanese government has failed to return abducted Japanese nationals back to Japan, although it received a petition with six-million signatures calling for the resolution of the abduction issue.

In its latest issue, the Korean magazine “Weekly Chosun” raised the possibility that the Japanese woman could be still alive in North Korea. It reported that a woman with the same birth date and the same family background as Yokota was included in the resident registries of Pyongyang citizens.

Megumi Yokota was kidnapped by North Korea when she was in middle school. She is known to have married a South Korean man who was also abducted by the North. The two are believed to have had a daughter.