Pyongyang has told Tokyo it needs "more time" to finish its investigation into the fates of Japanese nationals in North Korea a year after it launched the probe, Japanese officials said Friday.
The Japanese in question include those abducted by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 1980s.
North Korean officials in September informed Japanese representatives that it would take about a year for the special investigation committee to finish its probe, although the nation did not say where that time frame begins and ends.