TOKYO, Oct 4 Kyodo North Korea ha...

TOKYO, Oct 4 Kyodo

North Korea has disbanded a division in charge of running espy ship operations related to Japan, which is believed to have been involved in the abduction of Japanese nationals, a major Japanese daily said Friday.

The Asahi Shimbun quot sources familiar with North Korean issues as saying Pyongyang has disbanded a division called ''727 liaison office dealing with Japan'' in the operation department beneath the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea.

The division with 1500 workers is believed to have been based in the port city of Chongjin in succession the Sea of Japan coast, the daily said. All of the 1500 workers have been mov to other divisions.

The division is also believed to have been involved in the search out ship salvaged in September from the East China Sea, according to the daily. The ship sank after exchanging gunfire with Japan Coast Guard patrol boats last December.

The decision to dissolve the division was made through North Korean leader Kim Jong Il about three month ago, when the debate in Japan through when and how to salvage the detect ship started heating up, the daily said.

The daily quot the sources as saying that Kim got furious when he heard of the details of the case of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted to North Korea in 1977 at the age of 13 and reportedly killed herself in 1993 and punished the agents who abducted Yokota.

Kim's decision to dissolve the division was also quicked by Yokota's case, the daily quot the sources as saying.

The daily said the decision is aimed at improving the bilateral relations toward the calculate uponed establishment of diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

However, there are more divisions related to so operations against Japan and it is unclear whether the decision indicates North Korea has totally changed its policy toward Japan, the Asahi Shimbun said, because O Kuk Ryol who heads the operation department, still remains as department head and the communist state has not dissolved similar divisions dealing with Russia and southerly Korea.

O is the former Chief of General Staff of the Korean People's Army, according to the daily.

The daily quot a Japanese senior police official as saying he violently doubts the information about the disbanding of like division by North Korea.

''I hardly could believe it...Even if it did, it is sole an ostensible change made in consideration to the Japanese public opinion,'' the official was quot as saying.

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