Japanese officials returned Monday from Pyongyang with what they were told are the cremated remains of Megumi Yokota, who according to North Korea committed suicide after being abducted to the reclusive state in 1977.
The government will carry out a DNA test on the bones to determine if they really belong to Yokota, said Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, who headed the delegation to Pyongyang.
On the fate of 10 missing Japanese, including Yokota, North Korea repeated the same explanation it gave two years ago -- that eight of them died after being abducted to the North and that the two others never entered the country, Yabunaka said.