Japan wants kidnap victims to stay

Families want a permanent reunion

The Japanese Government reportedly wants North Korea to extend the visit of five Japanese nationals kidnapped by Pyongyang a quarter of a century ago.

The five Japanese are currently visiting their homeland for the first time, following North Korea's admission last month that its agents carried out the abductions.

Relatives complain that the visit has been too short

They are due to return to North Korea on Monday, a day before Japan begins talks with North Korea to normalise relations.

But family members have appealed to Tokyo that the five be allowed to permanently remain in Japan. Many are afraid that if the kidnapped go back, they will never be allowed to return.

It is unclear, however, whether the returnees want to stay in Japan. Many have said they are settled in North Korea, where they have children.

There are conflicting reports as to whether Tokyo has already asked Pyongyang to lengthen the visitors' stay or is preparing to do so.

'Hostages'

According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, quoting a source well-versed in Tokyo-Pyongyang ties, the request has already been made and North Korea is expected to respond later on Thursday.

A North Korean foreign ministry official, Pak Ryong-yon, reportedly told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that Pyongyang was ready to repatriate the five Japanese and their children.

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But he is said to have lashed out at Japan for its apparent lack of remorse over its 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.

"The abductions do not compare with the cruelty of Japan's actions (during the colonial period) in either their scale or their brutality," he said.

Family members say the returnees are not able to speak freely because they had to leave their children behind in North Korea as "hostages".

Kaoru Hasuike, who was abducted with Yukiko Okudo, now his wife, is reported to have reacted angrily when friends have tried to persuade him to return to Japan.

"I have lived for the last 24 years as best I could. Are you saying it was a waste of time?" he is quoted as saying.

The seven children of the kidnapped, who were all brought up in North Korea, are reported to be unaware their parents were abducted, or even that they were Japanese.

The five are the only known survivors of at least 13 people kidnapped in the late 1970s and '80s to help teach Japanese customs to North Korean spies.