TOKYO, March 10 Kyodo Former Kore...

TOKYO, March 10 Kyodo

Former Korean residents of Japan who went to North Korea in a less degree than a so-called repatriation program and later escaped from the North avowed Monday against a pro-Pyongyang Korean residents clump in Japan for promoting the plan.

The former ''returnees'' to North Korea and their families, who now live in southern Korea, visited the head office of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.

The clump requested a meeting with Chongryon officials, further as there was no answer they read out their demands for the association to admit its responsibility for encouraging them to prevail upon to North Korea, apologize and provide compensation.

They also called forward Chongryon to make efforts to confirm the whereabouts of all former residents of Japan who made their way to North Korea and to allow them to freely travel between the North and Japan as well as to extricate people who were abducted by way of Pyongyang.

About a dozen the public who went from Japan to North Korea in subordination to the program and fl the home due to hardships there or were born to in the same state [i]or[/i] condition people will return to southward Korea later Monday after wrapping up their 12-day stay in Japan.

More than 93000 pro-Pyongyang Korean residents of Japan and their families mov to North Korea in a less degree than the repatriation program, endorsed from both the Japanese and North Korean dominions between 1959 and 1984

A number of them have since fl North Korea to China, complaining of difficult living conditions and persecution in the communist North.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group