Tokyo ? One married an American defector and is still living. But North Korea says eight other Japanese kidnapped by communist spies died one committed suicide in a mental hospital, two died in car crashes, two more of gas poisoning, two others of illness and one drowned.

All but one of their graves have disappeared, reportedly washed away by floods leading the victims’ families to question the North Korean accounts, relayed by Japanese officials who returned Tuesday from a fact-finding mission in North Korea.

“This country is telling us outrageous things. It makes me realize what a horrifying country it is,” said Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was 13 when she disappeared in 1977 on her way home from badminton practice.

According to the North Koreans, Megumi Yokota killed herself while receiving treatment for depression in a mental hospital in the capital of Pyongyang in 1993. She was found hanging from a pine tree, torn bits of her clothing fashioned into a rope, Japanese officials quoted the North as saying.

The disclosures came as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly was headed to North Korea for security talks today and Friday, raising hopes for a growing dialogue with the isolated communist state.

But the Japanese public reacted with stunned incredulity to the information relayed by Cabinet spokesman Shinzo Abe at a news conference Wednesday raising doubts about the talks being planned between the Asian neighbors to try to set up diplomatic ties.

“Clearly, these are lies upon lies,” said Katsuei Hirasawa, a lawmaker who has been trying to bring the abducted Japanese home.

Although Japan has long worried about Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear weapons program and missile development, the kidnappings are clearly the most volatile and emotional issue for the Japanese public.

The mystery of the victims’ deaths dominated news coverage Wednesday.

“Fabricated stories” said a headline in the Yomiuri, Japan’s largest-circulation newspaper. “Cruel deaths one after another,” said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, another major daily.

The families of the victims had claimed for decades their loved ones were kidnapped.

But it was only last month that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted the bizarre chapter in Asia’s Cold War history acknowledging that 13 Japanese were taken to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s to teach the North’s spies Japanese language and customs and to allow the spies to take on their identities to enter other nations.

Five victims are still alive in North Korea, although it is unclear when they will be able to come home.

They have reportedly expressed a desire to see their families but are reluctant to return to live in Japan something the families believe their loved ones were pressured to say.

In its latest report, North Korea said two Japanese, who married after they were kidnapped, died in 1988, along with their toddler child, of poisoning from coal fumes while sleeping in their home.

Another, Rumiko Masumoto, died of heart disease in 1981 when she was only 27.

“Our family has never had any history of heart disease,” said Teruaki Masumoto, her brother. “I had to laugh.”

Abductee Tadaaki Hara died of a liver ailment at 49, the North told the Japanese investigators.

The victims had been given Korean names. Some were reported to have taught Japanese or studied Korean. Only one set of remains, which had been cremated twice, came home.