The six remaining family members of Japanese Red Army fugitives holed up in North Korea since 1970 will resettle in Japan in the next few months, sources said.

The group includes two women suspected of helping abduct two young Japanese tourists from Europe in 1980.

Their arrival in Japan will leave four aging Red Army hijackers of the infamous nine who commandeered the Japan Air Lines airliner ``Yodo'' to Pyongyang in March 1970.

Three of the hijackers died in North Korea, and two returned to Japan. One is still serving a prison sentence and the other was released in 1994.

The hijackers married in North Korea, and to date, 23 members of their families have moved to Japan.

Of the six, police are expected to arrest Sakiko Wakabayashi and Yoriko Mori on relatively minor passport offenses. Police also want to question them about their suspected involvement in luring Toru Ishioka and Kaoru Matsuki to North Korea from Spain in 1980.

Wakabayashi, 50, and Mori, 51, are known to have met up with Ishioka and Matsuki in Spain.

The two were photographed with Ishioka at a Barcelona zoo.

Ishioka, then 22, and Matsuki, then 26, are among eight Japanese abductees who Pyongyang insists died in the North.

Wakabayashi is the wife of Moriaki Wakabayashi, 57, one of the four hijackers still in the North.

Mori is the wife of Takamaro Tamiya, a senior Red Army member who died there.

Sakiko Wakabayashi is likely to return in March, followed on separate flights by Mori, three of the hijackers' children and a brother-in-law of one member, the sources said.

The remaining hijackers are: Takahiro Konishi, 60; Shiro Akagi, 57; and Kimihiro Uomoto (formerly Abe), 56. They are all on the international wanted list.

The group had repeatedly sought to have the hijacking accusations dropped before their return to Japan.

But in July 2002, they said they wanted to come home even if it meant facing arrest.

In September 2002, Pyongyang admitted to having abducted Japanese nationals, including Ishimoto and Matsuki, as well as Keiko Arimoto, whom the group is also suspected of luring to the North from Europe.

The four now are asking to negotiate directly with Japanese authorities and insist they should be cleared of those suspicions before returning.

The Red Army members hijacked the aircraft en route to Fukuoka from Haneda in 1970. It was the country's first hijacking.

Their presence in North Korea was cited by the United States as one reason for designating the North as a country supporting terrorism.

Two members, Yoshimi Tanaka and Yasuhiro Shibata, were convicted of hijacking and other charges in Japan. Tanaka was arrested in 2000 and is serving a 12-year prison term. Shibata was released in 1994.(IHT/Asahi: January 7,2005)