WASHINGTON (Kyodo) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would be open to the idea of meeting with the families of the abductees when she visits Japan next week, the State Department said Monday.
"Certainly the secretary would obviously take a look at a proposal from the government of Japan," department spokesman Robert Wood said.
"The U.S. government, as you know, remains very concerned about the abductees," Wood said. "I've made that case, made that point very clearly to the North Koreans in the past. We'll continue to do so."
Clinton is scheduled to visit Japan from next Monday to Wednesday on the first leg of her first overseas trip since becoming the top U.S. diplomat last month.
She will also pay visits to Indonesia, South Korea and China.
Japan and North Korea are divided over the number of Japanese nationals North Korean agents abducted in the 1970s and '80s and over the fates of some of them, including whether they are still alive.
Of the 17 abductees on Japan's official list, five were returned in October 2002. North Korea claimed in 2002 that eight had died and two had never entered the country.
Japan later added two others to the list to bring the total to 17.
Last August, North Korea promised Japan it would launch a panel to reinvestigate the cases in September. But it subsequently suspended the launch, saying it first wanted to confirm the policy of Prime Minister Taro Aso, who took office Sept. 24 after his predecessor, Yasuo Fukuda, resigned.