Japan is planning to send government officials to North Korea to learn details about its investigations into the fates of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang, government sources said Tuesday.

"Even if we dispatch (officials to North Korea), there would probably be no risk," one source said hours after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made public North Korea's proposal that Japanese officials visit Pyongyang for such a purpose.

The proposal was made in a meeting Monday between Junichi Ihara, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador for negotiations to normalize relations with Japan, in Shenyang, northeastern China.