Five Japanese make first visit home since abducted by spies

FIVE Japanese citizens returned home yesterday for the first time since they were kidnapped by North Korean spies a quarter of a century ago, weeping for joy as they rushed into the arms of long-lost loved ones.

In a reunion marking a thaw in one of the last Cold War frontiers, the three women and two men stepped off a chartered jet from North Korea wearing crisp suits and dresses.

First they clung to each other, then they erupted into tears and broad smiles as they hugged mothers and fathers on the tarmac of Tokyo's Haneda airport.