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Japanese police have learned from testimonies that North Korea had allegedly ordered a female agent to abduct Hideko Watanabe and her two children, who all went missing in Tokyo in 1973, Kyodo News reported quoting investigative sources Sunday.

But the agent failed to deliver the three to a North Korean operative ship during the first attempt in 1974, leading the police to believe that she killed the mother and later abducted only the two children to North Korea, the sources said.

The police have been investigating the case, with police sources saying earlier that the police were planning to put the female agent on the international wanted list on suspicion of abducting the two children.

The police investigators learned of the initial failed attempt to kidnap the three through testimonies from people related to Universe Trading, a now-defunct Tokyo trading company with North Korea ties.

The female agent, 59, worked for the trading company and left Japan in 1979 after marrying a Japanese man and obtaining Japanese nationality, the police sources said earlier, noting it is possible she is now in North Korea.

The children were born to Ko Dae-gi, a pro-Pyongyang Korean resident in Japan, and his Japanese wife Watanabe, who disappeared in 1973 at the age of 32 along with the kids, Kyodo said.

The father, who had gone missing earlier, worked for the trading company and is believed to have led a group of agents there before the female agent took over the leading role.

The children were Ko Gyong-mi, a girl whose Japanese name is Kiyomi, and Ko Gang, a boy whose Japanese name is Tsuyoshi. They were aged 6 and 3, respectively, at the time of their disappearance.

According to investigations so far, the female agent took Watanabe and the two kids to a coastal area of the Sea of Japan in 1974, but failed to meet with a North Korean operative ship because of rough winter weather at that time, the sources said.

The agent was then forced to bring the three back to Tokyo, raising the possibility that she killed the mother and later took the children to the Sea of Japan again and abducted them to North Korea, the sources said.

The woman is believed to have repeatedly entered and left Japan by using North Korean operative ships docked along the Sea of Japan such as the city of Obama, Fukui Prefecture.

The police suspect the agent used the same route in abducting the children to North Korea, the sources said.

Universe Trading was established in June 1971 by an executive of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, widely known as Chongryon.

The company traded in commodities such as digital watches and cameras but is believed to have been a base for North Korean operations in Japan. It was dissolved in December 1984, according to the Kyodo report.

North Korea admitted in 2002 for the first time that its agents abducted Japanese nationals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Disclosing the abduction of 13 Japanese, Pyongyang returned five of them but claimed that the other eight have died.

The Japanese government continues to dispute the North Korean claim, and formally recognizes that North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese.