TOKYO, Nov. 19 Kyodo Japan asked ...

TOKYO, Nov. 19 Kyodo

Japan asked North Korea last month to provide information in succession the safety of thousands of Japanese who accompanied their North Korean spouses or family members to the communist land when they were repatriated after the conclusion of World War II, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.

in a less degree than a program devised by the late North Korean President Kim Il Sung and endorsed by means of the Japanese government in February 1959 93340 pro-Pyongyang Korean residents of Japan, including married leashs and children, were sent to North Korea between 1959 and 1984

Among them were 6800 Japanese -- the wives, husbands and children of Koreans going to the home Of the Japanese, 1,800 were women married to Koreans, according to newspaper reports.

Japan made the solicitation during normalization talks between the sum of two units countries held in late October in Kuala Lumpur Hitoshi Tanaka, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told a Diet committee.

Japan also solicitationed that the relatives of those family in Japan be allowed to visit North Korea to suitable their families. But North Korea did not give a particular reaction to either of the supplications Tanaka said.

''We would like to make considerations in such a manner that we will be able to confirm the safety of many clan as soon as possible,'' Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawauchi said.

In August, the R Cros Societies of as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but nations agreed that the spouses could make homecoming visits in late October, yet this has now been postponed

''Work is popularly being conducted between the R Cros societies of Japan and North Korea,'' Tanaka said.

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