Japan's largest labor union organization plans to bombard North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il with bilingual postcards demanding the return of Japanese captives the Stalinist state has abducted, union officials said.

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, known by its Japanese acronym of Rengo, has printed about 100,000 pamphlets and handed them out to members, as well as made the document available on its website, each of which contains a cut-out postcard urging Kim to "let our comrades come home."

Interested parties can cut out the postcard on the pamphlet, affix a 70-yen stamp and send it off to North Korea in the hope it will convince Kim to allow the Japanese hostages to return to their homeland.

Rengo is carrying out the campaign as part of its human rights and peace activities.

"These abductions are a tremendous violation of human rights and should never be permitted," a Rengo spokesman said.

Rengo's postcards are written in Japanese and Korean phrases that say "let our comrades come home." They go on to add: "Just as you have parents you respect, so there are comrades who have sons and daughters your country has abducted. Please allow these people to return home as soon as possible." The postcards also contain the photos of 12 people the government recognizes as having being abducted by North Korea, not including the five who returned to Japan in 2002.

Rengo's effort is not the first postcard campaign Japanese have conducted to try and prompt Kim to move on the abduction issue. Ten years ago, relatives of abductees carried out a similar campaign, spending a year sending letters to Kim asking for the Japanese to be freed. To make sure the postcards are not destroyed when they arrive in North Korea, their front has been adorned with a photo of the Dear Leader.

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