After Decades in N. Korea, Wives Return to Japan for Visit

NARITA, Japan — In the first visit of its kind, 15 Japanese women living in North Korea returned to their homeland Saturday to spend time with family members they haven’t seen in years.

The six-day visit comes after tortuous negotiations between Japan and North Korea and is considered a major boost for normalizing ties between the two countries.

“I’m so excited I’m about to be reunited with the parents and siblings I’d been longing to meet even in my dreams,” said one of the women, Kim Guang Ok.

The women, ages 55 to 84, are all married to North Korean men and left Japan between the 1950s and the early 1980s. They were not allowed to leave North Korea until now; some have not seen their relatives and friends for 40 years.

Weary but in high spirits after their journey, which included a stopover in Beijing, the women arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport Saturday evening.

“The first thing I want to do is visit my mother’s grave,” Lee Mi Hyun told reporters at the airport. “I’m grateful the hopes I’ve been harboring in my heart for so long have been realized.”

The women were to spend the night at a community youth center in Tokyo before meeting their relatives today. Red Cross organizations of both countries arranged the homecoming.

The visit is considered a step toward improving relations between the nations, after talks on normalizing ties collapsed in 1992.

North Korea’s refusal to allow the visits had long been a sticking point. About 1,800 Japanese women and a small number of Japanese men now live in the Communist nation.

Other serious disputes remain, including claims that North Korean agents have kidnapped Japanese citizens over the years and taken them home as language teachers, a charge that North Korea denies.

But after a series of devastating floods and a drought that has decimated its crops, North Korea is eager to improve ties with its wealthy neighbor in hopes of getting food and other aid.

Tokyo has said the visits are not linked to other issues, but Japanese officials recently announced plans to donate $27 million in food aid.

Japan, which ruled the Korean peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945, established diplomatic relations with capitalist South Korea in 1965 but has yet to forge formal ties with the North.

“My sister hasn’t seen Japan for almost 40 years,” Seiji Arai told the Kyodo News Service. “She will probably be surprised at how things have changed so much.”