Japanese man on way home after release from North Korean custody

Japanese tourist Tomoyuki Sugimoto gestures as he arrives at Beijing airport from Pyongyang yesterday

A Japanese man released by North Korea after being accused of a crime was on his way home after arriving in Beijing from Pyongyang yesterday, officials and reports said.

Tomoyuki Sugimoto had been in North Korean custody for an investigation into the unspecified crime, but the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday that the country decided to be lenient and expel him for humanitarian reasons.

Without mentioning Sugimoto by name, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono confirmed that a Japanese man held by North Korea had been in Beijing and that officials planned to interview him about the incident. Kono declined to give details.

Kyodo News said Sugimoto confirmed his identity to its reporters who were on the same Air Koryo flight out of Pyongyang yesterday. NHK television quoted a Japanese diplomat as confirming the man’s identity and describing his health as “not bad.”

Reports said Sugimoto left Beijing later on a flight to Tokyo.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said he could not comment “because of the nature of the matter.”

Sugimoto, believed to be a videographer, was arrested in the North’s western port city of Nampo, where North Korea may have suspected him of filming a military facility, according to earlier reports. Kyodo, quoting an unidentified Japanese government source, said Sugimoto was on a North Korea tour arranged by a China-based travel agent.

The Japanese government reportedly had sought his release through the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. Japan does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea.

Sugimoto was escorted by North Korean authorities and showed up for his departing flight, carrying a single bag, just before the gate closed, Kyodo reported. He was seated in economy-class and an official of the state-run Air Koryo sat in the row behind him and watched over him, Kyodo said.

He was silent during the trip except for asking a Kyodo reporter’s identity before boarding the flight, the news agency said.

In his remarks yesterday, Japan’s foreign minister repeated a government request for Japanese citizens to avoid traveling to North Korea.

In December 1999, a Japanese correspondent for the Nikkei newspaper was detained in North Korea for more than two years on spying charges in Pyongyang. Separately, Japan and North Korea have also disputed over abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago.

North Korea has also arrested other foreign nationals. Three Korean-Americans accused of anti-state activities and detained for more than a year were released and returned home in May. American college student Otto Warmbier, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison in the North, died in June 2017 days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Their arrests had compounded the dire state of relations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Mari Yamaguchi, Tokyo, AP