Kishida willing to meet Kim Jong Un over kidnappings of Japan citizens

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Saturday he was ready to meet with the leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un to try to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted in the 1960s and 1970s, media outlets report.

“I am determined to face Kim Jong Un directly myself, without any preconditions,” Kishida said during a meeting dedicated to this issue in Tokyo, Mainichi Shimbun, Nikkei and Kyodo news agencies report.

In 2002, Pyongyang admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens decades earlier. The five abductees and their families later returned to Japan, claiming the rest had died.

Tokyo, however, believes that 17 Japanese were abducted and continues to investigate the fate of those who did not return, according to local media.