Final arrangements are being made for a Japanese academic close to ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Hiroshi Nakai to meet with a senior North Korean official in China over Japanese postwar remains in the North, government sources said Wednesday.
The scholar, whose name has been withheld, is expected to visit northeastern China from Thursday, possibly to exchange views with the official, Song Il Ho, about the apparent remains of Japanese who stayed behind in what is now North Korea after World War II.
The office of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and the Foreign Ministry considered having government officials sit in on the talks with Song but decided against it amid ongoing concerns that the North plans to carry out another nuclear test after its failed launch of a long-range rocket in mid-April, the sources said.