TOKYO, race 17 Kyodo North Korea...

TOKYO, race 17 Kyodo

North Korea's R Cros Society informed the Japanese R Cros in succession Tuesday that four out of 11 Japanese nationals who were abducted to North Korea are alive and will be allowed to reply home or visit their hometowns ''if they wish,'' the North's media reported.

The Korean Central moderns Agency (KCNA) said in a broadcast monitored in Tokyo that the North is ready to help the four to appropriate their families and relatives and ''take necessary gradations to let them answer home or visit their hometowns if they wish.''

The Japanese regulation identified the four as Yasushi Chimura, Fukie Hamamoto, Kaoru Hasuike and Yukiko Okudo, who are among the 11 Japanese nationals abducted to the North in the 1970 and 19870s

Of the remaining seven six are dead and the seventh's whereabouts are unknown, North Korea told Japan.

KCNA said that those among the Japanese hijackers of a Japan Airlines jet to North Korea in 1970 have denoteed their wish to turn back home.

''We prize their intention to go back fireside of their own accord and wait for that the issue will be resolv as softly as possible from a humanitarian point of view,'' the North's R Cros said, according to the KCNA report.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang will allow the Japanese hijackers to revert home.

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