A Japanese delegation arrived Monday in Pyongyang to assess North Korea's ongoing investigation into the fates of abducted Japanese nationals.

In talks with North Korea's special investigation committee scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, the delegation will try to obtain information on 12 individuals whom Tokyo declares were abducted in the 1970s and '80s and who remain unaccounted for.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants those 12 cases resolved as a priority, over and above the North's probe into other Japanese individuals — such as the wives of ethnic Koreans who moved from Japan to North Korea under a 1959-1984 repatriation project.