In-mid April, a senior Foreign Ministry official in charge of Asian affairs looked confident. Although bilateral talks with North Korea had been suspended for more than half a year, the official predicted Pyongyang would have no choice but to come back to the bargaining table to discuss the abduction issue.
"Now we are creating an environment where the North will have no choice but to respond" to Japan's demand to resume bilateral talks, the official said.
Specifically, the United Stated and China were jointly putting pressure on the North to resume talks with Japan, particularly over key issues, like the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and '80s.