Japan, North Korea to hold fresh talks

Japan and North Korea are expected to hold fresh talks after Pyongyang agreed to investigate the alleged kidnapping of Japanese nationals to train spies.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Sunday that officials from the two sides will meet later in June.

Tokyo said on May 29 that it would ease some of the sanctions imposed against North Korea over the years after North Korea promised to conduct a thorough investigation of the abduction of 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

The news agency also said that both sides were preparing to hold the new round of talks soon following their three-day talks in Sweden in May.

The fresh talks may be held in China, while Junichi Ihara, the head of the Japan Foreign Ministry’s Asia and Oceania Affairs Bureau, and Song Il-Ho, the North Korean envoy for talks to normalize ties with Japan, will take part in the event, Kyodo also said.

In May, Pyongyang confirmed the shift in relations between the two countries. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, “The Japanese side re-clarified its will to settle its inglorious past, solve the pending issues and normalize the relations together with the DPRK (North Korean) side.”

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitted in 2002 the abduction of the Japanese nationals; Pyongyang has since returned five of the kidnapped victims and their spouses and children.

Pyongyang has insisted that the eight others are dead.