After quarter century, Japanese abductees return to Tokyo from North Korea

TOKYO -- Five Japanese kidnapped a quarter-century ago by North Korean spies returned to Japan on Tuesday in the nation's most emotional homecoming since troops returned from World War II.\nThe abductees' chartered jet touched down at Tokyo's Haneda airport after picking them up earlier in the day from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.\nStepping off the plane in crisp suits and dresses, the returnees clung to each other and erupted into tears and then broad smiles as they hugged family members waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Waving Japanese flags, family members showered them with large bouquets of red and pink roses.\nDuring the two-hour flight, they were treated to a Japanese style lunch of tuna sashimi, grilled beef and soba noodles, as well as welcome-home notes and digital photos of what their relatives look like after decades of lost contact.\nFamily and friends awaited them with a mix of excitement and unease.\n"Today I'm going to be very cheerful to welcome her and forget the past just for now," said Yuko Hamamoto, brother of returnee Fukie Hamamoto.\nShe and her then-fiancee Yasushi Chimura were grabbed from behind, wrapped in bags and whisked away in North Korean boats as they strolled along a secluded Japanese beach in 1978, when both were just 23 years old.\nNow married, they are among the five returnees who are the only known survivors of at least 13 people abducted by the North in the 1970s and early 80s to train its spies in the Japanese language and culture.\nTempering the jubilation about their return, however, was renewed anxiety about the fate of eight other abductees whom North Korea says died in the interim, under what many Japanese deem mysterious circumstances.\n"I'm very happy about the development. But this does not close the abduction issues," chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.\nSuspicion also runs high because the abductees, now all in their 40s, are only allowed to stay a week or two and forbidden to bring their children. Calling the children hostages, family members and government officials have said the abductees won't be able to speak openly about North Korea for fear of retribution.\nPrime Minister Junichiro Koizumi helped broker the homecoming through his unprecedented Sept. 17 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. But he has since faced widespread Japanese anger over the North's explanation of the others' fate.\nStumping Monday for parliamentary elections, Koizumi echoed the concerns, saying, "Certainly North Korea is an outrageous country--kidnapping and killing our people."\nThe returnees' families have requested the reunions be low-key, private affairs, and Koizumi has no plans to greet or meet the visitors while they stay in Tokyo for two days before returning to their hometowns.\nHe welcomed the abductees home in a statement that urged an engrossed nation to give the reunited families time alone together.\n"My heart aches when I think about all the sorrow and pain," Koizumi said. "I wish the returnees quiet time to relax and I hope from the bottom of my heart this reunion will help heal the pains they have suffered until now."\nAt last month's summit, Kim reversed years of angry denials and confessed that his country had indeed kidnapped the 13. The news shocked Japan, and has been the top story in newspapers and on TV almost every day since.\nBut the visit is seen by many as just a first step in closing a bizarre story that has long been one of many irritants in the two countries' stormy relations.\n"I feel very confused. I don't know what to think. But their homecoming is not the end of the issue," said Hatsui Hasuike, mother of returnee Kaoru Hasuike. Kaoru was a 20-year-old college junior in 1978 when he was abducted on his way to a date with fellow abductee Yukiko Okudo. They married nearly two years later in the North.\nThe fifth returnee is Hitomi Soga, abducted the same year from an island in the Sea of Japan. While in North Korea, the former nurse married a former American soldier, Charles Robert Jenkins, who was stationed in South Korea and listed as a deserter by the U.S. military. They have two daughters.\nNorth Korea has said the eight other abductees are dead--but has denied any were killed. According to the North, one death was a suicide, two died of asphyxiation from a gas leak and others passed away from poor health or in car accidents.\nKoizumi's meeting with Kim opened the way for normalization talks to resume between the two countries, which have never had diplomatic ties. The two sides are scheduled to meet Oct. 29-30 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.\nBut many Japanese remain outraged that eight abductees died, and are opposed to normalization talks until Pyongyang is more forthcoming about why. Support groups, meanwhile, say there are many more abductees--with the real number as high as 60.