Kazumi Kitagawa holds a news conference at a Niigata hotel after returning from Pyongyang on Nov. 3.

Kazumi Kitagawa arrived at Niigata airport via Vladivostok and held a news conference.

"I caused great trouble to the governments and people of Japan and North Korean. I deeply regret it," she said.

She said she received no instructions from Pyongyang on departing for Japan.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported Nov. 3 that it sent Kitagawa back "from a humanitarian point of view."

She decided to go to North Korea to "evade the repeated persecution" by the Kyoto public security investigation department, including being forced to spy on Aum Shinrikyo and Chongryun from the spring of 2000, according to the KCNA.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 12, 2005
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