Japan says it will resume talks with North Korea on normalizing bilateral ties after resolving the issue of family members of former Japanese abductees remaining in the North.
The Japanese government said it will address North Korea's nuclear issue separately from the bilateral normalization talks.
A South Korean government official said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi had told Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon last week that Tokyo would resume talks with Pyongyang within an appropriate timeframe.
At recent talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won the release of five North Korean-born children of Japanese abducted by the communist state decades ago.
However, the two daughters and American husband of abductee Hitmoi Soga, Charles Robert Jenkins, who Washington says is an army deserter, still remain in North Korea.