An informal intergovernmental meeting between Japanese and North Korean officials in Shenyang on Monday has rekindled hope for addressing issues of concern between the two countries, including Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
Details of the talks, which lasted for two hours, were not immediately known. But it is rare for officials from the two countries to meet, especially since Tokyo and Pyongyang have held no talks since they last met in Ulan Bator in November 2012, a month before the North pushed ahead with a banned missile test.
Monday's meeting took place on the sidelines of Japan-North Korea Red Cross talks proposed by the North Korean Red Cross Society. Earlier there were unconfirmed news reports that officials from Japan and North Korea had secret contact in late January in Hanoi.