Four North Koreans leave Japan for South Korea

TOKYO, June 16 (Reuters) Four North Koreans who arrived by boat at a Japanese port two weeks ago left Japan today for South Korea, their desired destination, officials said.

Three men and a woman taken into custody in northern Japan on June 2, believed to be a couple and their two adult sons, arrived in a small wooden boat after a sea journey they said had begun on May 27.

The four said they wished to go to South Korea, and Japanese officials had said they would be treated sympathetically.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement the family had departed for South Korea.

''We made arrangements with South Korea for their departure from a humanitarian standpoint and based on their wishes,'' the ministry added.

NHK public television showed the family boarding the plane, their faces concealed by blankets. The plane left shortly before 10 a m local time.

The four told police they left Chongjin on the east coast of North Korea and headed south, but changed course due to heavy security and ended up at Fukaura in Japan's northern Aomori prefecture, 800 km (500 miles) to the east.

They were quoted in the media as saying that they were lucky to be able to eat bread every other day, but local media reports said they were wearing wristwatches, raising questions about how poor they actually were.

Some North Korea watchers said the watches suggested they might be middle class and their departure hinted at growing frustration among middle class North Koreans since the poor couldn't leave and the elite wouldn't need to.

Japan can grant asylum seekers a six-month permit under its immigration law, and a 2006 ''North Korean human rights law'' also states the government must take measures to protect and support defectors from North Korea.

North Korean defectors have fled to Japanese missions and other premises in China in the past, and Tokyo has allowed them to leave for third countries, but it is rare for North Koreans to flee to Japan.

Their arrival had raised concerns that relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang - which have no diplomatic ties - could worsen if North Korea demanded their return, but no such demands were made.

Japan is feuding with North Korea over the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang's agents to help train spies.

Abe has said that without a resolution to the abduction issue, Japan will not provide funds for a multilateral deal reached in February under which North Korea agreed to scrap its nuclear arms programme in return for energy aid.

REUTERS JK BST1107