Tokyo reacted with concern Tuesday to news that North Korea has suspended its search for missing Japanese believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

"I think it was a move that lacks in sincerity," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Monday evening. "It's deplorable."

Koizumi noted that the government will use all possible means and channels to urge Pyongyang to deal "more earnestly" with the issue.