Tokyo is considering sending its foreign minister to North Korea early next year in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the past.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper said Saturday that if realized, the visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura would be made between late February and late March.

Last month, North Korea handed over what it said were the remains of Megumi Yokota and Kaoru Matsuki, two out of ten Japanese nationals that Pyongyang admitted to kidnapping in the 1970s and 1980s to help teach its spies about Japan.

Results of DNA tests announced recently, however, showed the remains were unrelated to the abductees.

Japanese ruling and opposition party lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution not long after, urging sanctions against Pyongyang and to suspend all aid to the communist state until North Korea responds "sincerely" to Japan's efforts to unveil the truth surrounding its missing citizens.

Japan and North Korea have held three rounds of talks since last September to discuss the fates of the ten missing Japanese nationals.