North Korean officials told Japanese lawmakers that Pyongyang is ready to send the family members of the five former Japanese abductees to Japan if they go to the Pyongyang airport to meet them, Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Katsuei Hirasawa said Thursday.

The Japanese lawmakers rejected the proposal, Hirasawa told reporters.

The move may indicate that North Korea is softening its stance on solving the deadlocked abduction issue, now that the six-nation talks on its nuclear threat are on hold.

The suggestion was made during Hirasawa's trip to Beijing on Saturday and Sunday along with another House of Representatives member, Jin Matsubara, from the Democratic Party of Japan, and Tsutomu Nishioka, a representative of the abductees' support group.

The North Korean side was represented by Jong Thae Hwa, the chief delegate to the Japan-North Korea normalization talks.

Hirasawa said Pyongyang's suggestion fell short of a full assurance.

"They said they will make utmost efforts to send the family members to Japan if the five will travel to Pyongyang," he told reporters after meeting with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda.

"We told them there is no option at all on our side for the five to go to Pyongyang," Hirasawa said.

The five returnees -- Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike, Yasushi and Fukie Chimura, and Hitomi Soga -- were abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 and allowed to return to Japan in October 2002 after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a historic visit to Pyongyang the month before.

Pyongyang allowed them to come to Japan for a "temporary visit," but the Japanese government decided they should remain in Japan. The government has since been urging Pyongyang to let their children and Sogo's American husband to come to Japan.

Hirasawa is secretary general of a lawmakers' group supporting the abductees and their families, and is a hardliner on the North, calling for economic sanctions against the reclusive state.

The government meanwhile showed a calm reaction to the North Korean proposal.

"We do not deny various efforts, but we do have an official route and we are working on this route," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said at a news conference.

"If they are really serious, they will talk to the Foreign Ministry," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.

Hirasawa unofficially talked to the Foreign Ministry about his plans before going to Beijing, but he did not report to the prime minister's office about his trip until Thursday.