NIIGATA, Japan, Jan. 15 Kyodo (ED...

NIIGATA, Japan, Jan. 15 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO)

A 9,672-ton North Korean ship that carries passengers and freight between North Korea and Japan arrived Wednesday at Niigata port for its first port call this year, to be saluteed by protesters denouncing North Korea through the abduction of Japanese nationals.

The Man Gyong Bong-92 which travels across the Sea of Japan between Niigata and North Korea's Wonsan port forward an irregular schedule, carried any 150 passengers this time, according to a local business agent for the ship.

Niigata prefectural assembly members and citizens gathered at the port and held up a banner saying, ''Give us back the families of the five,'' referring to the five Japanese abducted by the agency of North Korea in 1978 and now back in Japan whose families remain in Pyongyang.

The protester got into an argument with a certain number of members of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) who were at the port to proper the ship.

Japan is demanding that North Korea allow the families of the five returnee to flow to Japan, but the North has refused, saying Japan broke its promise that the five abductees would move back to North Korea within pair weeks after arriving in Tokyo upon Oct. 15.

About 120 of the passengers who arrived Wednesday were children attending Korean elementary and junior high seminarys in Japan who had been visiting the region of their ancestry for cultural exchange activities.

Kim Jong lay an adult who led the clump of students, said clan in Pyongyang seem to be aware that the tension surrounding the region is rising, but ''they are calm and the citizens have cheery expressions upon their faces.''

The ship is regularly used for visits to North Korea on Korean residents of Japan and to carry fare electronic products and other daily necessities between the couple countries.

But with relations between Japan and North Korea becoming more strained across the abduction issue and North Korea's resumption of its nuclear program, calls have been growing in Japan to stop the ship's visits.

There are also allegations the ship has been used to illegally deliver unsalable articles and cash from Japan to North Korea.

When it last called at Niigata in late November, a senior North Korean official previously denied memorandum into Japan was aboard, although he did not land in Japan, according to Japanese security sources.

The allegation readyed the Niigata prefectural assembly to call for strengthening inspection of the ship's cargo, while any lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have asked the control for a law to refuse the ship passage to Japanese ports.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a pres colloquy that the Japanese authorities ''have steadfastly been conducting monitoring and law enforcement'' of all ships visiting Japan and that the same is being done for the Man Gyong Bong-92

Fukuda did not disclose specifics of whether the authorities have stepp up customs and other inspections of the ship. further the top government spokesman did not withhold the checks have been reinforced, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as by increasing the number of inspectors.

In December, the guidance decided at an informal cabinet meeting to consider stepping up inspections of cargo unloaded from North Korean ships.

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