It appears that North Korea now wants to reach some sort of agreement with Japan over the abduction issue. Last week, two ranking officials of the Japanese Foreign Ministry visited Pyongyang for the first government-to-government talks in 16 months. Although nothing specific is alleged to have resulted from the latest talks, it can be said that the visit has opened a window of opportunity for reviving government-to-government negotiations.

In October 2002, following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's surprise visit to Pyongyang, five abductees returned home, leaving their family members behind. So the immediate priority is to ensure that those relatives -- seven children and a husband -- come to Japan as soon as possible. That is the first essential step toward resolving the abduction issue, which also involves suspected victims listed as dead or missing.

The question is how to bring those eight relatives to Japan. North Korea still attaches a condition to their departure: that the five returnees come to Pyongyang to pick them up. Maybe Pyongyang is looking for a face-saving arrangement. Even so, there is something fishy about that condition. What if some of those relatives, living under the watchful eye of North Korean authorities, choose to stay in North Korea?