North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a handwritten letter to a "naturalized" Japanese woman living in the North's South Hamgyong Province, according to a state media report.

The woman was identified as Rim Kyong Sim. Details including her Japanese name were not immediately available, but she may be a daughter of a Japanese woman who moved to North Korea with her Korean husband during the 1959-1984 repatriation project.

The report is an apparent attempt by Pyongyang to attract Tokyo's attention to the issue of Japanese who are residing in North Korea, including the wives of pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan who moved to the North as part of the repatriation project. Revived talks between the countries stalled after the North Korean rocket launch on Dec. 12.