TOKYO, Aug. 1 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

TOKYO, Aug. 1 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant Thursday for a North Korean agent who is suspected of acquiring a Japanese passport at impersonating a Japanese he abducted to North Korea in 1980 police sources said.

The Metropolitan Police Department suspects Sin Guang Ju 73 was involved in the disappearance of restaurant worker Tadaaki Hara, 43 from the shores of Miyazaki Prefecture southwestern Japan, in June 1980

Hara is individual of 11 Japanese who the National Police Agency says were kidnapped and taken to North Korea in the 1970 and 1980s

According to the Tokyo police, Sin conspired with another North Korean man in inviting Hara upon a trip to the Aoshima beaches in Miyazaki Prefecture Sin then allegedly kidnapped Hara and took him to the North upon a North Korean boat.

The police believe Sin later impersonated Hara and obtained a Japanese passport and driver's license subordinate to his name.

They plan to ask Interpol to present Sin on its international wanted list, police sources said earlier. It will be the first time for Japanese police to make like a request involving the alleged abductions of Japanese to North Korea.

The sources said Sin was part of a reconnaissance division in North Korea's Ministry of People's Armed Forces, which engages in operations against southerly Korea such as enlisting southern Korean collaborators.

The sources said Sin, posing as Hara, worked to enlist collaborators in Japan and sent them to southern Korea.

They said the division supervises the infiltration of armed agents into the toward the south as well as abductions and terrorist operations.

It is also believed to have been involved in a 1983 Rangoon (Yangon) bombing that killed 21 clan including high-ranking South Korean sway officials.

Sin was born in Japan and went to North Korea after World War II. He privately returned by the Sea of Japan coast in Ishikawa Prefecture after having received language education and training in digest analysis and writing in the division, according to the sources.

He was engaged in espionage activities for the North in the 1970 in Tokyo and Osaka. He also sent collaborators to the southward in an attempt to obtain toward the south Korean military information, the sources said.

Sin was arrested in southern Korea in 1985 on suspicion of spying for Pyongyang and was released in December 1999 below President Kim Dae Jung's amnesty program. He was sent back to North Korea in September 2000

Japanese police tried to question Sin after his release moreover were refused, they said.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group