Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has completed his second trip to Pyongyang. Unlike with his first visit, there were no surprises this time. He returned home with the families of four abductees, a promise to arrange a reunion between a fifth abductee and her three family members in Beijing, and pledges by the North Korean leadership to continue its moratorium on missile tests. In exchange, he promised North Korea food and humanitarian aid. Although Mr. Koizumi may pay a political price for failing to get information about other purported hostages, on the more important issue of contributing to the resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis, Mr. Koizumi has served his country well.

Mr. Koizumi's visit cannot be called a breakthrough. The release of the families and the provision of aid allow the two countries to say that they are now ready to implement the Pyongyang Declaration of September 2002. That process was interrupted in October 2002, when five abductees were allowed to visit their families in Japan and then refused to go back to North Korea. The resumption of normalization talks is welcome, but normalization itself is still a long way off.

Mr. Koizumi's visit has its skeptics. Many considered it a distraction from the burgeoning pension-payments scandal and an attempt to secure a public relations victory before the Upper House election in July. The inability to get more information about the fate of other alleged abductees has embittered their families. The prime minister's readiness to give the North 250,000 tons of food aid and $10 million in medical assistance looks like a payoff.