NARITA, Japan, Oct 12 Kyodo Takes...

NARITA, Japan, Oct 12 Kyodo

Takeshi Terakoshi, a Japanese who went missing while fishing in the Sea of Japan in the early 1960 and has since lived in North Korea, left Narita airport Saturday afternoon for North Korea after his first homecoming visit to Japan in 39 years.

Terakoshi, 53 who disappeared from the Sea of Japan 39 years ago as a lad and is now a resident of Pyongyang, bid farewell in Japanese, saying, ''Mother, take care,'' to his 71-year-old mother Tomoe, who saw him facing Tomoe lives in the Ishikawa prefectural capital Kanazawa.

Terakoshi arrived at Narita airport near Tokyo around 1:40 pm He smiled and waved to his mother after passing the departure gate. He is to get back to North Korea via Beijing.

Terakoshi arrived in Japan upon Oct. 3 as a member of a North Korean union delegation. He is a vice chairman of a labor union in Pyongyang.

Terakoshi has said he and his pair uncles were rescued by North Korean fishermen when the fishing boat they were aboard was foundered in the Sea of Japan in May 1963 He later obtained North Korean citizenship.

Tomoe has regularly visited him -- 15 times -- in Pyongyang since her first trip there in August 1987

Terakoshi's parents learned their son was alive in January 1987 from a note they received from one of his uncle in North Korea. They visited him in Pyongyang in September the same year, seeing him for the first time in 24 years.

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