Japanese and North Korean officials will meet next week for an update on the North's probe into the fate of Japanese citizens it kidnapped decades ago, Japan's top government spokesman said on Thursday.
North Korea has told Japan it can only give a preliminary report on the status of its investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang decades ago and of other missing Japanese, the government spokesman in Tokyo said on Friday.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye, thwarted so far in ambitious plans to begin the process of reunifying the Korean peninsula, said the door is open for talks with the North during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly.
North Korea is ready to provide Japan with initial findings from a special investigating team that looked into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang's agents decades ago, Kyodo news agency quoted a North Korean diplomat as saying.
Shinzo Abe on Sunday became the first Japanese prime minister to visit Sri Lanka in 24 years, on the second leg of a South Asian tour that sought to assert Tokyo's interest in a region where it has ceded influence to China.
Japanese First Lady Akie Abe said on Thursday the country should consider cutting wasteful spending and boosting the economy before going ahead with a rise in the sales tax to 10 percent, as her husband wrestles with just that decision.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe picked two veteran lawmakers with friendly ties to China for top party posts on Wednesday in an apparent signal of hope for a thaw in chilly ties with Beijing and a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
