Japan is confident some of the more than a dozen citizens abducted by North Korean agents over three decades ago are alive, and is counting on Kim Jong Un to return them, said the minister in charge of the issue.
"We are holding negotiations on the premise that the abductees are alive and that we are going to bring them all back," Keiji Furuya, 61, said Wednesday in an interview at his Tokyo office.
Furuya said he expects North Korea to hand over in "late summer or early autumn" a report on the investigation into the fate of the abductees and other Japanese living in the isolated state.