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.