Suspected North Koreans arrive in Japan on boat

TOKYO, June 2 (Reuters) Japanese authorities are questioning four people who arrived at a northern port today on a boat of unknown origin, suspecting that they may be North Koreans seeking asylum.

If they are refugees, it would be the first time that North Koreans have fled to Japan and sought asylum directly, and could further strain ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang if North Korea demands their return.

In 1987, Pyongyang asked Tokyo to return the crew of a North Korean boat who sought asylum in South Korea after docking at a port in western Japan, but Tokyo allowed them to leave for the South.

''I've been told that we've put under protection people believed to be of North Korean nationality,'' Kyodo news agency quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as teling reporters.

''The immigration authorities will deal with it appropriately.'' Japan only grants refugee status to a limited number of people each year, but a 2006 ''North Korean human rights'' law stipulates that the Japanese government take measures to protect and support defectors from North Korea.

Kyodo said the three men and a woman appeared to be a family, spoke Korean and were telling local police that they had departed from near the North Korea-China border about six days ago.

The four also were carrying bottles that they say contained poison, Kyodo added.

BOAT WITH MODIFIED ENGINE A local official said a small black wooden boat, resembling a fishing boat, had entered Fukaura port facing the Sea of Japan in Aomori prefecture, 570 km north of Tokyo.

NHK television said the boat was about 5 metres long, equipped with a modified engine and also carrying a spare engine.

Japan, which has no diplomatic ties with North Korea, has barred entry to ships from the North since Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.

Tokyo is also feuding with the secretive communist state over the fate of Japanese citizens abducted decades ago by Pyongyang's agents to help train spies in Japanese language and culture.

Prime minister Abe has vowed not to provide funds for a multilateral aid-for-arms deal clinched in February, by which Pyongyang promised to scrap its nuclear arms programme in return for energy aid, until the abduction issue has been resolved.

Japanese abductees who were repatriated in 2002 have said they were kidnapped by agents and taken to the North on speed boats that left from the Japanese coast on the Sea of Japan.

In December 2001, a suspected North Korean spy ship sank in the East China Sea after a high-speed chase and an exchange of fire with Japan's coastguard. Tokyo believes the vessel was used for spying or drug smuggling.

North Korean defectors in the past have fled to Japanese institutions in China, but all sought asylum in third countries. Japan has also helped dozens of Japanese women and their families who went to North Korea decades ago return to their homeland.

REUTERS SG DS1432