TOKYO — Japan will drop some of its sanctions against North Korea in exchange for a probe into abductions of Japanese citizens, the two countries said Friday, signaling progress on an emotional dispute that has hindered efforts to get Pyongyang to give up nuclear weapons.
The deal, reached in two days of talks in Beijing, won a reversal of North Korea’s long-standing position that its kidnappings of Japanese during the 1970s and ’80s were already resolved. Tokyo has long demanded a full investigation into what it says are unsolved cases.
“We believe there has been a step forward,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.
Still, he cautioned against too much optimism: “This isn’t a major step. My understanding is that this is just minor progress.”
North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese over the years. It allowed five to return home, saying the other eight were dead, but Japan wants conclusive proof of the deaths and an investigation into other suspected abductions.
Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said the communist regime in Pyong yang also agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the 1970 hijacking of a Japanese jetliner that was flown to North Korea.
Komura and other officials said Japan would lift some of its sanctions, including a ban on ships and chartered flights between the two countries.
Japan imposed tight trade sanctions against the impoverished communist nation in 2006 after North Korea tested ballistic missiles in the waters between the two countries and conducted a test explosion of a nuclear device.
