At least three people have been allowed to enter Japan from North Korea with the direct involvement of the Japanese government through secret channels since 1996, it was learned Sunday.

The existence of one, a North Korean government official who was allowed to enter Japan in 1999, was reported in the Japanese media last month.

The other two are a man who was repatriated to North Korea under a program run by the Red Cross societies of the two countries and the child of the Japanese wife of another repatriate, several government sources said Sunday. None of the three were named.

Sources said earlier that more than 20 North Korean defectors, mainly former residents of Japan and their relatives, have secretly entered Japan since 1995. The government has denied helping them do so.

But a member of a nongovernmental organization supporting North Korean defectors said entry would have been difficult without help from the Japanese government, suggesting a considerable number may have been helped to enter the country.

According to the government sources, the North Korean man entered Japan around 1996, and the child of the Japanese woman arrived in 2000. Both cases were considered to be "humanitarian acts" because one used to live in Japan and the other was a child of a Japanese national.

As such, they were determined to be "quasi-Japanese." The Japanese government is said to have an informal policy of allowing such people to enter Japan, the sources said.

Since it is considered an extrajudicial measure, however, there is no system to care for such people after they enter Japan. The former North Korean government official has demanded that measures be created to enable him to obtain Japanese nationality, the sources said.