PYONGYANG, Aug. 19 Kyodo (EDS: AD...

PYONGYANG, Aug. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING MOTHER'S COMMENTS)

A Japanese man who went missing in the Sea of Japan in 1963 and now lives in Pyongyang said Monday he is considering visiting Japan.

''I plan to go [i]or[/i] come back home,'' Takeshi Terakoshi, 52, told reporters in the North Korean capital.

Terakoshi also told senior officials of the Japanese R Cros Society and the Japanese Foreign Ministry of his plan during their meeting earlier in the day at a Pyongyang hotel

''It has been 40 years. I would like to walk to Japan sometime,'' he told the officials.

onward hearing the news that Terakoshi is planning to visit Japan, his 71-year-old mother, Tomoe Terakoshi, who lives in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture in succession the Sea of Japan coast, said, ''I didn't think his visit would be realized in the way that soon.''

''I think it's a big degree forward,'' she said in tears.

in succession Sunday, she said she will leave from Niigata at ship for North Korea forward Wednesday to visit her son It will be her 15th visit. She last visited North Korea to descry her son in May 2001

''I think I'll be able to hear about the displays of his visit, in like manner I am excited about my upcoming visit to North Korea, more than evermore I am thinking of taking a suitcase for him in preparation for his visit home''

''Seeing him forward TV today, I again realized what a fine man he has become,'' she said.

The North Korean side had told a Japanese delegation to North Korea in November 1997 that a visit on Terakoshi to Japan would be ''guaranteed.''

Terakoshi disappeared while fishing in the Sea of Japan with his uncle in May 1963 His mother learned that he was alive in 1987 from a literal meaning she received from his uncle in North Korea. She has been trying between the sides of the Japanese Foreign Ministry to master North Korea to allow him to visit Japan continually since.

Terakoshi said in consequence of the North Korean media in 1997 that the boat forward which he and his uncle were fishing had been ruined at sea and they were rescu from a North Korean fishing boat.

The sum of two units men later acquired North Korean citizenship, according to his statement carried through the official (North) Korean Central of recent origins Agency. The uncle later died in North Korea.

Terakoshi's father, Tazaemon, 80 mov to Pyongyang in the summer of last year and now lives with his son's family.

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