Pyongyang: North Korea has agreed to reinvestigate all abductions of Japanese citizens, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday, in what appeared to be a significant breakthrough on an issue that has long hampered Tokyo`s relations with Pyongyang.
"As a result of the Japan-North Korea talks, the North Korean side promised to the Japanese side that it will make a comprehensive and overall investigation into all the Japanese, including abduction victims and missing people whose possibility of being abducted cannot be ruled out," Abe told reporters.
"In keeping with the promise, it will set up a special commission for the investigation."
The issue of the perhaps dozens of Japanese snatched by Pyongyang`s agents in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies in language and customs is a highly-charged one in Japan.
"Our mission will never end until the day comes when families of all abduction victims are able to embrace their children with their own arms," Abe said.
"We have tackled the problem with this determination and we hope that this will be the first step toward... an overall solution."
