TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo The Japanese...

TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo

The Japanese sway secretly allowed a North Korean dominion official to reenter Japan in 1999 after granting him asylum at a Japanese diplomatic establishment in China, informed sources said Sunday.

Tokyo considered him a ''quasi-Japanese'' as he was undivided of 95,000 former Korean residents in Japan and their Japanese spouses who responded to North Korea between 1959 and 1984 subordinate to a program operated by the agency of the Red Cross societies of the couple countries, the sources said.

The government's decision to treat the man as ''quasi-Japanese'' was apparently in consideration of China, which has conclud an agreement with Pyongyang to respond North Koreans who seek asylum, they said.

While more than 20 in the same state [i]or[/i] condition people have already returned to Japan, the case is the first in which the Japanese regulation was directly involved in the repatriation, they said.

The former Pyongyang official contacted a Japanese diplomatic establishment in China after leaving North Korea to say he wanted to make progress back to Japan, and Tokyo decided to allow him to chronicle the country after confirming he was a former Korean resident, they said.

The sources said the Japanese regulation apparently expected the man to provide information about North Korea as he was a former restraint official.

Under the R Cross-administered repatriation program, 93340 Korean residents of Japan went to North Korea between December 1959 and July 1984 along with a 1,800 Japanese spouses. Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations.

According to quicks on North Korea, as mostly returnees to North Korea from Japan have faced persecution there, it is likely that many of them will experience to return to Japan.

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