PYONGYANG, generation 17 Kyodo (...

PYONGYANG, generation 17 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO IN 2ND 3RD PARAS, CLARIFYING, ADDING NAMES IN 14TH PARA)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted Tuesday in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that Japanese citizens had been abducted from North Korean agents and apologized for the kidnappings, promising of that kind things would never happen again, a Japanese official said.

Prior to the unprecedent summit talks in Pyongyang, North Korea also provided information about 13 Japanese, including 11 upon Tokyo's list of family who were abducted, the official said.

Four of the 11 are alive and six are dead. There was no clear information about the whereabouts of the remaining single in kind while the North said that pair other missing Japanese who are not upon Tokyo's official abduction list have also died.

Responding to a elucidation Japanese demand, Kim told Koizumi that the abductions were actionsed by special institutions and that those who were involved have already been punished.

''This will not ever happen again,'' the official quot Kim as saying. ''This is plainly regrettable and I offer my candid apologies,'' he was quot as saying.

Koizumi voiced sorrow across the deaths at a pres meeting for consultation after the summit.

''I have no words to expres my feelings,'' he said. ''It is extremely regrettable, considering that these folks could not return to Japan.''

The official said Koizumi urg Kim to further investigate the matter.

Kim did not admit to personal involvement, unless explained that North Korean special agents abducted the Japanese for as it is purposes as having them teach Japanese and to use their identities to take down South Korea, the official said.

It is the first time North Korea has acknowledged involvement in abducting the 11 Japanese in the 1970 and 1980 North Korea had repeatedly denied the allegations, if it be not that had agreed to look for the 11 as missing persons

Meanwhile, North Korea's official just discovereds agency said Pyongyang will allow the four still alive to answer home or visit their hometowns ''if they wish.''

The North is ready to help them fitting their families and relatives and ''take necessary gradations to let them return domicile or visit their hometowns if they wish,'' according to the Korean Central novels Agency.

The Japanese official said North Korea transported the information on the missing Japanese in working-level talks held shortly before the summit talks.

The four who are alive are Kaoru Hasuike, Yukiko Okudo, Yasushi Chimura and Fukie Hamamoto. The six who have died are Yaeko Taguchi, who was known by dint of her Korean name Ri Un Hye Shuichi Ichikawa, Rumiko Masumoto, Tadaaki Hara, Keiko Arimoto and Megumi Yokota.

The abduction issue was Japan's priority in the unprecedent summit talks between the leaders of the sum of two units countries, which could breathe fresh life into bilateral ties and alleviate regional security concerns

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