Ethnic Koreans in Japan loyal to Pyongyang hope next week's historic U.S.-North Korea summit will help bring reconciliation on the Korean peninsula and clarify their own murky legal status.
Their optimism has built following April's upbeat summit of the leaders of North and South Korea and ahead of next Tuesday's meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.
"I thought reunification was something in the distant future, especially with all the sanctions" on the North, said 17-year-old Paeng Yu Na, who attends one of about 60 schools across Japan affiliated with the North.