North Korea has agreed to open a new investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s in return for the lifting of some sanctions, the two countries said Thursday, according to Reuters.
North Korea acknowledged in 2002 that its agents kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly to train spies in Japanese language and culture, Reuters reported.
Japan will lift the sanctions after it confirms that a committee has been set up and has begun work, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, Reuters reported. It will also consider possible humanitarian aid to North Korea depending on the progress of the investigation, which is expected to start in about three weeks, he said.
The sanctions, which are in addition to United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea, include restrictions on bilateral exchanges, limits on how much money ethnic Koreans in Japan can take on visits to North Korea, and a ban on port calls by North Korean-flagged ships, according to Reuters.
Japan has been demanding a new investigation into the fate of the remaining abductees and wants any still alive to be returned, but North Korea abandoned an earlier promise to reinvestigate in 2008, Reuters reported.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said the North agreed to set up an investigation committee and, if survivors are found, take necessary steps to send them back to Japan, according to Reuters.
Japan, in exchange, "re-clarified its will to settle its inglorious past, solve the pending issues and normalize the relations," KCNA said, Reuters reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the agreement was a first step toward resolving the kidnapping issue, which has long kept the nations at odds, according to Reuters.
"We have been tackling the issue with the resolve that our mission will not end until the day the families of the abduction victims can hold their loved ones in their arms," Abe told Reuters.
