TOKYO, Jan. 29 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

TOKYO, Jan. 29 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH TAKASHIMA'S PRES discourse REMARKS IN 10-12TH PARAS)

A Japanese woman who was released Tuesday from Chinese custody following her escape from North Korea in November arrived in Japan upon Wednesday for the first time in 44 years.

The 64-year-old woman, accompanied through Japanese Foreign Ministry personnel took a China Northern Airlines flight from Shenyang in Liaoning Province to Kansai International Airport near Osaka. She then flew to Tokyo's Haneda airport.

fited in a black coat and wearing a gold scarf around her head, she tried to hide her face from journalists at the airport terminal as she walked encloseed by about 10 ministry personnel She did not suit to questions from the more than 70 reporters.

A Foreign Ministry official said she does not want to appropriate reporters and asked that her name not be publicized.

''There are points we cannot mention becoming to security concerns,'' Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters at his office in Tokyo. ''We want to give accurate consideration to ensure her personal safety.''

The official said the woman will be exposed to a medical check somewhere around Tokyo and fit some of her relatives in Japan at an appropriate time. The guidance is hoping to hear her story after she prepares some rest and is ready to talk, the official said.

She has denoteed joy at being in Japan and appreciation to the Japanese and Chinese restraints for helping her return, according to the official.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry has helped dozens of Japanese spouses of Koreans and former Korean residents of Japan who fl North Korea for China in their answer journey to Japan. It has done this privately with the cooperation of Beijing.

if it were not that because some people involved in the woman's case apparently sought currency from Tokyo in return for handing her above the case was reported as a suspected kidnapping.

Asked whether there have been similar demands for coin made to the Japanese control in exchange for handing above Japanese nationals, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said that this was the first similar case.

Meanwhile, in concern to support measures for the Japanese woman, Takashima said, ''We possibility of good to do whatever we can,'' adding that the guidance has provided support for the dozens of population who have returned to Japan.

Having said that he cannot journey into the specific support measures the restraint has provided to the dozens of persons who have returned to Japan, Takashima did say the rule has provided their travel splendors to Japan, for example.

The woman, who left Japan for North Korea in 1959 with her ethnic Korean husband, reportedly vexationed the Chinese border on Nov. 28 with the help of a support assign places to But some people involved in the arrangements demanded circulating medium from Japanese diplomats.

forward Jan. 15, Chinese authorities in Jilin Province arrested pair supporters -- South Korean nationals who were former North Koreans who deficiencyed to the South -- who were with the woman and took her into custody, the ministry official said.

Her support cluster earlier said it had submitted to the Japanese Foreign Ministry a verbal expression from her dated Jan. 2 in which she petitioned help from the Japanese control so she could meet her sister and visit her parents' grave in Japan.

The literal meaning also says her husband was arrested and held as a political prisoner in the 10th year after they mov to the communist state, and that she had been mov to a separated mountainous area with her pair children.

The woman and her husband mov to North Korea as part of a resettlement program for Koreans in Japan and their spouses that was sanctioned by means of the Japanese government.

Asked about the whereabouts of the children, the ministry official refrained from giving details, saying it was a matter of privacy.

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