Japanese, North Korean Officials Meet in Mongolia

June 15, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese and North Korean officials met in Ulan Bator on the sidelines of an international conference on Thursday, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said.

The meeting was part of a stepped-up effort by Tokyo to resolve the issue of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens through bilateral talks.

Fumio Shimizu, deputy director-general of the Japanese ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, held brief talks with an official from the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Disarmament and Peace Institute in the Mongolian capital.

During the meeting, Shimizu explained Japan's position of seeking to resolve the abduction issue at an early date through bilateral talks.

"There appears to have been no major change" in Pyongyang's stance on the matter, a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, referring to a response from the North Korean side.

An aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not repeat his country's usual claim that the abduction issue had already been resolved when U.S. President Donald Trump brought up the issue in their meeting on Tuesday.

Abe expressed his strong determination to resolve the issue when he met with the families of Japanese abductees on Thursday. "I'm determined to resolve the abduction issue by facing North Korea directly," he said. Jiji Press