They consist mainly of four groups: prisoners-of-war in the Soviet Union, Japanese accompanying repatriating Zainichi Korean spouses, defectors, and kidnapping victims.
Their current whereabouts are unknown; documents from Russian archives suggest that only the physically ill were sent to North Korea, while able-bodied men were retained by the Soviets to perform forced labor there.
Kang also relayed an anecdote about Kim Il Sung being shocked when one Japanese woman showed up when he was making a "spot visit" to a mine in South Hamgyong Province and personally begged to him to be allowed to go back to Japan.
They further objected to the Japanese practice of referring to such trips as "visits home", instead preferring to call them "temporary visitors" or even "government delegations".
[8][9] In 2003, Kazumi Kitagawa, a Japanese citizen and former member of Aum Shinrikyo, jumped overboard from a Chinese tourist boat on the Yalu River and swam to North Korea where she requested asylum.