Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that Japan and North Korea have made progress in talks over the abduction issue, and indicated he might visit Pyongyang again to resolve the deadlock.
He said that during bilateral talks earlier this week in Beijing, the two sides discussed how Pyongyang would send to Japan the families of five Japanese nationals who were abducted to North Korea in the late 1970s and allowed to return to Japan in October 2002.
The two sides "talked in detail, including the issue" of allowing the family members of the five to come to Japan, Koizumi said after receiving reports from two senior officials of the Foreign Ministry who attended the talks.