The abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and '80s is an issue that cannot be sidelined when Tokyo seeks to normalize relations with Pyongyang. The issue was raised by U.S. President Donald Trump in his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday. That is a major step forward, but it is a problem that ultimately can only be resolved by Japan and North Korea. The government has reportedly begun exploring a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Kim, possibly as early as this fall. Tokyo needs to devise a strategy on how to break the years of stalemate over the problem that, along with the development of nuclear weapons and missiles by the Kim regime, has to be resolved for relations with Pyongyang to move forward.
According to media reports on the summit, Trump, per Japan's request, told Kim of Abe's position that Japan would not provide economic aid to Pyongyang until the abduction issue is resolved and prodded the North Korean leader to take action. Kim reportedly did not react negatively.
In the 2002 summit between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang for the first time acknowledged and apologized for the kidnapping of more than a dozen Japanese citizens by North Korean agents, paving the way for the immediate return of five of the abductees, who were later reunited with their families. Regarding 12 other Japanese citizens that Tokyo says were abducted by North Korea, Pyongyang insists that eight of them died after being taken to North Korea and the remaining four had never entered the country — an account that the Japanese government has refused to accept.