Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has offered to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to resolve the issue of Japanese abductees.

In an interview with Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper published on Thursday, Abe said he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with no pre-conditions and have a candid, heart-to-heart conversation with him.

Abe characterized Kim as a leader capable of flexible and strategic thinking in order to get the best for his country.

The prime minister said that resolving the abduction issue means normalizing bilateral relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang based on the 2002 Pyongyang Declaration signed by former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. 

Following Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang the same year, North Korea admitted to abducting 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s and allowed five of them to return to Japan. It claimed that the remaining eight were deceased.

However, Japan claims there are more victims, and continues to raise the issue as a key agenda item with North Korea despite little progress being made.

Abe’s conciliatory remarks may be influenced by the fact that Japan is the only country in the Korean Peninsula region and member of the long-stalled six-party talks that has yet to have a summit with the North Korean leader.

[Photo : YONHAP News]