Citizens' groups seeking the return of Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s demanded Monday that Japan explain its reported plan to provide food aid to North Korea at a time when there is no visible improvement in the communist country's efforts to resolve the issue.

A representative of the groups handed a written demand to Foreign Ministry officials and requested a meeting with Foreign Minister Yohei Kono.

One of the groups' representatives was Shigeru Yokota, whose daughter, Megumi, disappeared at age 13 in 1977 from Niigata.