Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe on Sunday described North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as having a "rational" way of thinking and hinted at the possibility of being able to resolve the abduction issue.
"I got the impression that he is a leader who can talk logically and think rationally," Abe said of Kim, who he met in Pyongyang in September 2002 while accompanying Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for the first-ever Japan-North Korea summit.
In a speech in Yokohama, Abe, who was deputy chief Cabinet secretary at the time of the trip to North Korea, said Japan can pursue resolution of the abduction issue if the officials think ahead.
He said the North's test-firing of ballistic missiles July 5, its receiving Koizumi on visits, and the Korean Peninsula nuclear crisis since 1993 are all aimed at seeking an opportunity for direct negotiations with the United States.