Japan will send a group of doctors and government officials to North Korea on Tuesday to check the health of North Korean people exposed to radiation in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, officials have said.
The six-member group will spend five days treating survivors, it was announced Friday. The group will also visit North Korean medical facilities.
The group consists of two doctors, two Foreign Ministry officials and two officials from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. It will be the first time Japan has sent such a mission to the country.
Japan plans to begin studies on extending support to A-bomb survivors in North Korea based on the mission's findings. The move is believed to be part of the Tokyo's efforts to resume stalled negotiations with Pyongyang to normalize bilateral ties.
There are an estimated 1,200 to 1,300 A-bomb survivors in North Korea, according to a seven-member North Korean team, including two doctors, who visited Japan in February 2000 to study techniques for treating A-bomb survivors.
Tokyo invited survivors in South Korea to receive treatment in Japan from 1981 to 1986 and also donated 4 billion yen to Seoul in 1991 and 1993 to help people receive treatment. The funds were extended through the Red Cross societies of the two countries.
Tokyo and Pyongyang have held a number of talks on normalizing diplomatic ties since 1992, most recently in October.
However, the two sides remain at odds over several issues, including Pyongyang's demand for an apology and compensation from Japan for its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and Tokyo's demand for action on its allegation that North Korean agents abducted at least 10 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.