North Korea's chief negotiator Song Il Ho faces the media in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday May 28, 2014, after three days of discussions between North Korean and Japanese representatives about the Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and
North Korea has agreed to open a new investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens whom it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s, Japan and North Korea said Thursday.
North Korea's official news agency KCNA said that Japan voiced its intent to lift sanctions on the country. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that lifting sanctions would depend on progress in the investigation.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the agreement was just a first step toward resolving the kidnapping issue that has long kept the nations at odds.
It came after three days of talks between North Korean and Japanese officials in Stockholm earlier this week.
North Korea allowed five kidnapped Japanese to return home in 2002, but Japan believes at least a dozen others were kidnapped too and wants them returned, if they are still alive.