This picture taken on October 10, 2021 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on October 11 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un giving a speech to mark the 76th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.
The programme mainly targeted ethnic Koreans but also their Japanese spouses, lured by fantastical propaganda promising a “paradise on Earth”. As there are no diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea, Kim has been summoned as the head of the North’s government. In all, 93,340 people took part in the repatriation programme carried out by the Red Cross Societies in Japan and North Korea, and paid for by Pyongyang.
When Japan surrendered, hundreds of thousands remained, reluctant to return to their devastated homeland.