Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Pyongyang on May 22 for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in an effort to secure the passage to Japan of eight family members of five repatriated abductees, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.
Koizumi may bring back the relatives on the government plane on which he will be traveling, government sources said privately. Seven of the eight are offspring of the five abductees, while the eighth is the American husband of one of the five.
Hosoda did not elaborate on details of Koizumi's plan to bring the relatives here.