A leading Japanese daily says Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit North Korea to discuss the return of family members of five kidnapped Japanese who returned to Japan in October 2002.

The Sankei Shimbun newspaper said Sunday that Koizumi is planning on visiting the North on May 23rd. Quoting a government official, the paper said that if Pyongyang agrees to hand over the family members, Tokyo would provide medical supplies and food aid to the North in return.

The daily also said that a close aide to Koizumi met with North Korean officials in China early last month and discussed resuming talks on normalizing diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Tokyo.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that Koizumi recently instructed Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka to make preparations for his visit to the North. Tanaka had previously met with North Korean officials in Beijing last week to discuss the Japanese abductee issue.

North Korea abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to use them as language instructors for the country's spy training program. Five of the victims were sent back to Japan while their children, and in one case a husband, were left behind in the secretive communist state.