Terakoshi's mother asks for gov't cooperation for son's visit to Japan+

TOKYO, Feb. 27 Kyodo - The mother of Takeshi Terakoshi, a Japanese who went missing while fishing in the Sea of Japan in the early 1960s and has since been living in North Korea, asked the Japanese government Friday for cooperation to allow him to travel between Japan and North Korea without restrictions.

Tomoe Terakoshi, 77, handed a written request to that effect to the Japanese
government.
Terakoshi, 59, visited Japan in October 2002 for the first time since his
disappearance 39 years earlier. But a second visit has yet to be realized.
When the mother visited North Korea in January this year, Terakoshi told her
that he wants to travel to Japan again if the Japanese government guarantees
his safety.
Terakoshi, a native of Ishikawa Prefecture and now a resident of Pyongyang, has
said he and his two uncles were rescued by North Korean fishermen when the
fishing boat they were aboard was wrecked in the Sea of Japan in May 1963. He
later obtained North Korean citizenship.
Terakoshi's parents learned their son was alive in January 1987 from a letter
they received from one of his uncles in North Korea.
Shoji Terakoshi, one of the uncles who were with Takeshi at the time of the
accident, is said to have died of illness in the 1960s in North Korea. Shoji's
son, Akio Terakoshi, believes his father was killed by a North Korean agent and
that the three men were abducted.
In the written request, Tomoe asked the Japanese government to confirm that
taking humanitarian measures with regard to Takeshi, Shoji and their families
is its responsibility.
==Kyodo
2009-02-27 22:58:29