A leading Japanese daily says Tokyo and Pyongyang have agreed to hold follow-up talks on Japanese abductees later this month. The talks are expected to mainly focus on investigating the whereabouts of Japanese nationals who still remain unaccounted for after being abducted by the North decades ago.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said Monday that the two sides would likely conduct the investigations in Pyongyang, but they have yet to decide on the exact date and procedure of the investigations.

The move comes after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a one-day trip to North Korea on Saturday, breaking a two-year diplomatic stalemate and winning the release of five family members of Japanese citizens who were kidnapped by Northern agents in the 1970s and 80s.

Pyongyang claims that eight of the thirteen Japanese it had admitted to abducting have already died. However, Tokyo is demanding a full accounting of ten missing Japanese civilians, who it claims were kidnapped by the North during the Cold War era to help train North Korean agents.