The adult child of a Japanese woman who accompanied her Korean husband to North Korea decades ago under a repatriation program secretly entered Japan last summer with the help of the Japanese government, sources said Wednesday.

The government acted in the name of protecting the person, who is in their 50s, was born in Japan and can claim Japanese nationality by birthright, the sources said.

It is the first time that a Japanese who has fled North Korea has been confirmed to have re-entered Japan, the sources said.