Reports from Tokyo say Japan and North Korea will likely resume negotiations for diplomatic normalization after a planned reunion between former Japanese abductee, Hitomi Soga, and her families.

Talks for establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries have been bogged down since October 2002 over North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970 and 80s.

The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said Wednesday the reunion of Soga families will likely create momentum for Tokyo to resume diplomatic normalization talks.

Soga is to be reunited with her American husband, Charles Jenkins, and their two daughters in Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday.

Soga was returned to Japan in 2002 after being kidnapped to the North in 1978. Her husband, Jenkins, is accused by the United States of defecting to the North while serving in South Korea in late 1960s.

Jenkins is refusing to travel to Japan to join his wife out of fear that he would be handed over to the United States where he faces court martial.