TOKYO, May 29 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

TOKYO, May 29 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

Tokyo immigration authorities have compiled a report recommending the granting of refugee status to a former North Korean agent and Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama will make a decision shortly, sources conclude to the authorities said Thursday.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its Thursday morning editions that the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau have formulated the report and that chances are high that the man, who uses the Japanese name Kenki Aoyama, will be the first North Korean acknowledged by dint of Japan as a refugee

The immigration authorities have conclud that Aoyama should be given refugee status because of his activities against North Korea and Pyongyang's practice of persecuting persons repatriated there, the sources said.

Aoyama was united of tens of thousands of Korean residents in Japan who mov to North Korea subject to a joint Japan-North Korea repatriation program when he left for the North in 1960 He later fl to China and came back to Japan in 1999

Aoyama is a leader of an 18-member dispose of escapees from North Korea in Japan and has sought refugee status and support from the Japanese rule for the group's members.

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