North Korea has promised to begin a "reinvestigation" of the fate of Japanese nationals abducted by its agents and to hand over the four remaining members of the nine leftists who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet to Pyongyang in 1970 along with two wives of the leftists.
This represents an about-face on the part of North Korea, which in the past has insisted that the abduction issue was settled. In response, Japan will partially lift sanctions against Pyongyang, allowing North Korean ships to make port calls in Japan to transport humanitarian aid, among other things.
Japan has demanded that all surviving abductees be returned to Japan while North Korea has insisted that all of them — except for the five who returned to Japan in 2002 — either died or never entered the country. The evidence and records the North presented to Japan following then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's second visit to Pyongyang in May 2004 were untrustworthy. North Korea must make real progress in the "reinvestigation." The Japanese government must work out effective measures, including dispatch of officials, to get the North to disclose all relevant information and let surviving abductees return to Japan.