Five repatriated Japanese abductees are willing to accompany Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to North Korea to pick up their families if such a visit is realized, one of their relatives in Japan said Friday.
Toru Hasuike, whose younger brother, Kaoru, returned to Japan in October 2002 after being abducted to the North in 1978, said, "It is a fact that the five abductees, while paying consideration to the 10 others who are unaccounted for, have high hopes of the prime minister's visit to North Korea."
Hasuike told reporters in Tokyo that the five also have "a strong desire" to accompany Koizumi if the conditions are right and if it is necessary. The returnees have asked for a meeting with Koizumi to ask him if they can travel back to the North, he said.