Five of at least 13 known Japanese nationals who were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s returned home on Tuesday aboard a government-chartered plane. But their family reunions -- the first since they disappeared in the summer of 1978 -- will be temporary; they are scheduled to return to North Korea after a short stay of a week or two in their hometowns in Niigata and Fukui prefectures.
We hope that they will enjoy their time in Japan after an absence of 24 years, and can forget for the moment the difficult and trying lives they must have led in the reclusive dictatorial state. At the very least, we hope that they will appreciate the warmth of family life and the nature of their birthplaces during their brief sojourns.
Their homecoming, however temporary, attests to a warming of North Korea's attitude toward Japan. At the Sept. 17 summit meeting in Pyongyang, Mr. Kim Jong Il admitted for the first time that North Korean agents had abducted Japanese citizens, and offered an apology. Later, Pyongyang agreed, responding to a Japanese demand, to allow the five surviving abductees to return home for family reunions.