Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he intends to explain in the Diet the deportation of a man believed to be the elder son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his family from Japan.
"It will become an issue in the Diet, and I want to explain and respond," Koizumi told reporters at his official residence. "I believe I will help them understand."
The new prime minister said the two coalition partners of his Liberal Democratic Party -- the New Komeito party and the New Conservative Party -- understood and supported his government's policy on the matter.