Senior diplomat Mitoji Yabunaka is expected to visit China soon for talks with North Korean officials on abductions of Japanese, diplomatic sources said Sunday.
Yabunaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, is expected to hold talks with the North Koreans in Beijing or elsewhere in China as early as this week to urge them to send the families of five repatriated Japanese abductees to Japan, the sources said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka, who is said to have close connections with North Korean authorities, may accompany Yabunaka.