North Korea lets children return to parents

TOKYO - Five North Korean-born children of Japanese abducted by Pyongyang began a new life with their parents in Japan yesterday but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi got little praise for the summit at which he won their release.

Media and other critics charged that Koizumi, eager for a diplomatic coup ahead of a July election, compromised too much in his haste to reunite the five children with their parents, who returned to Japan in 2002 after 25 years in North Korea.

The three boys and two girls, aged 16 to 22, were met by their parents in Tokyo early yesterday after Koizumi struck a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at talks in Pyongyang on Saturday.

"The Prime Minister may believe that Saturday's summit meeting accomplished at least part of his goal," said the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun.

"But the latest meeting made no headway in resolving the abduction, nuclear, missile or any other issues related to Northeast Asia's peace and security."

Kim admitted at his first meeting with Koizumi in 2002 to the kidnapping of 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies.

Five returned to Japan the following month.

On Saturday, Kim agreed to let all eight relatives of the five former abductees leave.

Kim also said he wanted a nuclear-arms-free Korean Peninsula and reaffirmed a moratorium on ballistic missile launches, Koizumi said.

Japan, in turn, offered humanitarian aid to the impoverished country and agreed to hold preliminary talks on resuming negotiations aimed at establishing diplomatic ties.

Some Japanese were disappointed that Koizumi did not bring back the two daughters and American husband of abductee Hitomi Soga, Charles Robert Jenkins, who Washington says is an Army deserter.

Others were furious that the summit between the two leaders had failed to clarify what happened to other abductees who Pyongyang has said are dead or who are unaccounted for.

- REUTERS