Although no deadline was set for North Korea's promised probe into the fate of Japanese abducted by the hermit state, the review should be complete by this time next year, Japan's top government spokesman said Friday.

"We haven't confirmed the details, but we told them that it can't take too much time, and they are aware of it," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

But North Korea's chief negotiator muddied the waters the same day by saying Japan had agreed to halt the sale of North Korea's de facto embassy in Tokyo, which Suga denied.