North Korea to release family members of Japanese kidnapping victims
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-22 15:35

North Korea agrees to immediately release five family members of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Northern agents, Japanese government official says.

North Korea agreed on Saturday to release the family members of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Northern agents, Kyodo News service reported after a summit between the two countries' leaders.

Japan and North Korea must normalize their "abnormal" relations, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says after summit.

Japan agrees to extend 250,000 tons of food aid to North Korea, and US$10 million worth of medical supplies and humanitarian aid, Japanese government official says.

The report was later confirmed by government officials in Tokyo. The Kyodo dispatch came as top government officials rushed into a meeting with the former abductees at a Tokyo hotel.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was to make an announcement on the outcome of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il _ his first since September 2002 _ later in the afternoon.

Such an agreement would mark a breakthrough in relations between North Korea and Japan. Talks on normalization of ties between them have been stalled by a stalemate over the fate of the family members.

North Korea admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens in the 1980s and 70s. It said that eight had died, but allowed the five survivors to return to Japan without their families.

Japan has pressed since then for the release of the eight family members left behind"Kyodo quoted Kim as telling Koizumi that he could take the family members back with him on Saturday or afterward.

It was not clear whether all of the family members would agree to go to Japan. Jenkins is a former US soldier accused of abandoning his unit in South Korea in 1965, and could face extradition to the United States if he leaves the North.

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