Alleged spies 'sent by Japan's national intelligence agency' to gain intel on China military and North Korea

Two Japanese citizens arrested in China on suspicion of spying may have been collecting information about Chinese military activities and North Korea for Japan's national intelligence agency, Kyodo reports.

In explaining reasons for entering the country to Chinese authorities, the two men suggested that they were collecting information at the request of Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency, the report said, citing unidentified Japanese and Chinese diplomatic sources.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Wednesday that the authorities had arrested the two Japanese "on suspicion of carrying out espionage activities," while Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denied Japan sent spies to China.

An official with the Japanese agency, which typically handles threats to Japan's domestic security, said it was is in no position to comment on the matter.

The two individuals, detained in May, were civilians, diplomatic sources said.

One, a 55-year-old man residing in Kanagawa prefecture, was a North Korean defector and was detained in Liaoning province near Dandong , a border town on the Yalu River facing North Korea, the government source said.

The other man, a 51-year-old resident of Aichi prefecture who is a regular traveller to China, was detained near a military facility in Zhejiang province.