Suspicions have deepened that a man from Saitama Prefecture missing since 1976 was kidnapped to North Korea, an affiliate of the citizens' group NARKN said Monday.

The group investigates suspected abductions of Japanese nationals to the reclusive state.

It said it suspects Susumu Fujita, who was 19 at the time he disappeared, was abducted to North Korea because a man in a photograph brought from North Korea six months ago by a man who escaped the North and went to China, closely resembles Fujita.