Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will arrive in North Korea on Saturday for his second visit there in nearly two years.

Koizumi is scheduled to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il immediately after his arrival in Pyongyang and return home on the same day.

Koizumi is expected to accept Pyongyang's call for the prompt resumption of talks on normalizing bilateral relations if Kim agrees to Tokyo's request to return the family members of five former abductees who were repatriated to Japan in October 2002. Normalization talks have been stalled since October 2002 over the abduction issue.

According to the Japanese media, forensic experts who will accompany Koizumi will try to confirm the identities of the family members of the abducted Japanese citizens.