Japan was unable to find out Monday when North Korea will report its initial findings of a special investigation committee into the fates of at least 12 Japanese nationals abducted in the 1970s and 1980s.
After a meeting with North Korean officials in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, a senior Japanese diplomat told reporters that he urged them to release the findings without delay, but when that will happen is still undecided.
"I told them the abduction issue is particularly important," Junichi Ihara, Japan's top diplomat in charge of Asian affairs, said.