Japan mission on N Korea kidnappings

Two of the survivors Japan may seek to interview

Japan is sending a government mission to North Korea to gather further information on Japanese citizens abducted by the North Koreans in the 1970s and 1980s.

The visit, which is due to begin on Saturday, follows the admission by North Korea that it had kidnapped at least a dozen Japanese nationals and that eight of them had since died.

Such means of identification as DNA will be indispensable

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda

A Japanese spokesman said Tokyo wanted to use DNA testing to check that people Pyongyang said were dead matched with the Japanese government's missing list.

The spokesman said the tests would also verify how they died.

Pyongyang blamed natural causes or natural disasters, but many in Japan suspect foul play.

It has emerged since Pyongyang first admitted the kidnappings - at a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on 17 September - that two people died on the same day and that all perished in their 20s or 30s.

In addition, the mission hopes to interview some of the Japanese whom Pyongyang admits to have abducted and who are still alive in North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has said the survivors were now free to return to Japan if they wished to.

	Japan's missing Eight Japanese confirmed dead Four still alive in North Korea Kim Jong-il says he has punished the culprits See also: Profiles of the missing

The mission will be formed by some 10 government officials and will be headed by Akitaka Saeki, deputy director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.

The group is due to stay in North Korea until 1 October.

Family members have been pressuring Tokyo to seek further explanations about how eight of the kidnapped died.

Kyodo news agency, quoting government sources, said North Korea had already agreed to give Japan material evidence, including ashes.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday that Japan would also seek information about other missing Japanese who are suspected to have been abducted.

Some reports claim the number could be 60.

It is thought that some kidnapped Japanese were used to teach North Korean spies how to disguise themselves as Japanese nationals in order to infiltrate South Korea.

At least one other, Keiko Arimoto, is believed to have been intended as a wife for a Japanese radical left-wing faction member in North Korea.

Tokyo police said on Wednesday they had an arrest warrant for Kimihiro Abe - one of nine members of the Red Army that hijacked a plane to North Korea in 1970 - whom they accuse of Ms Arimoto's abduction in 1983.