A Japanese woman who moved to North Korea more than 50 years ago said Thursday she hopes official talks that resumed between the two countries last year will pave the way for improved relations.
"I imagine how great it will be if diplomatic relations (between the two countries) can be normalized at the earliest possible date and people can start traveling back and forth," Yoshie Arai, 82, said in an interview in Pyongyang.
Arai is one of about 1,800 Japanese women who accompanied their ethnic Korean husbands to North Korea in a repatriation program that lasted between 1959 to 1984 and that was managed by the Red Cross societies of the two countries.