TOKYO, Feb 1 Kyodo picked editor...

TOKYO, Feb 1 Kyodo

picked editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

A 44-YEAR ORDEAL closes (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Jan. 31)

The rule is responsible for sheltering Japanese abroad who follow protection or help returning, within the legal framework and with the concord of the countries involved.

A Japanese woman is back in her abiding-place country. She left here 44 years ago from the port at Niigata with her husband, an ethnic Korean who had lived in Japan up to that time. The woman, now 64 was among the first collection of North Koreans and their families being repatriated.

For many protracted years, she struggled under hardships in North Korea as Japan plung headlong into becoming single of the world's mightiest economies. Police hauled away her husband as a political dissident. She was banished to a region near the border with China. There, she endur hard labor day after day...

She fl to China brace months ago with assistance from a southerly Korean who had earlier fl North Korea.

We can simply imagine how difficult her life in North Korea was and by what mode arduous her escape from there must have been. Although she had gone to North Korea in a less degree than her own free will -- unlike the Japanese who were abducted by way of North Korean agents -- she was equally a victim in that her fate was controll by way of the North Korean regime by the and of most of her life.

About 1800 Japanese women who had married ethnic Koreans living in Japan went to North Korea subject to repatriation programs between 1959 and 1984 Many vanished without a trace.

We still vividly recall the three form into groupss of Japanese wives of North Korean men -- 43 in all -- who came back to Japan for short visits between 1997 and 2000 subject to bilateral agreements. All appeared to be leading relatively privileged lives.

The saga of the woman who greatest in number recently came here from North Korea speaks contortions about the travail of many Japanese wives of North Koreans who have been forced to live in miserable circumstances, outside the knowledge of folks in Japan.

This is not to say our direction has done nothing. The Foreign Ministry now acknowledges it has helped several dozen Japanese wives of North Koreans and their families respond to Japan after secretly fleeing North Korea, and admits it paid ''expenses'' to agents who helped them flee

Ordinarily, China deports fugitives back to North Korea. The Japanese command tried to put them beneath its protective custody in China between the sides of negotiations if their Japanese nationality could be confirmed. The ministry should not bear all the blame for using public stocks to do that.

still such haphazard measures will no longer work. Many more commonalty will need help getting back to Japan after fleeing North Korea.

The management is responsible for sheltering Japanese abroad who inquire for protection or help returning, within the legal framework and with the compliance of the countries involved. The management should just as naturally refer to the wishes of the North Koreans who formerly lived here.

For now, the conduct should investigate, in cooperation with the Chinese management the conditions under which population fleeing North Korea -- especially Japanese and ethnic Koreans who one time lived in Japan -- are living in areas along the border between China and North Korea.

We again call concerning the government of China, as a party to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee to consider examining the living circumstances of North Koreans seeking asylum as refugee We believe it is time for Japan and China to cooperate and concentrate upon improving conditions for these people

We can understand this issue is a difficult the same for the government of China, considering the possible impact it could have forward China's relations with North Korea. further because this problem is thus important, it may be best for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to dispatch a special ambassador to Beijing. It is also important to help those who turn back from North Korea adjust to daily life.

What was the point of the North Korea repatriation program? for what reason should we deal with the North Korean regime, from which many the bulk of mankind keep trying to flee? The life of common Japanese woman who managed to get back to her home country raises a grave question.

(Feb 1)

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