North Korea's latest promise to reinvestigate the cases of Japanese abducted by the reclusive state decades ago is a positive move from the regime, which has for years insisted that the matter has already been settled. The Japanese government needs to make sure that Pyongyang will follow through on its pledge this time by linking its responses — including lifting of sanctions or provision of humanitarian aid — to real progress in the promised probe.
According to an agreement unveiled after talks held by senior diplomats last week in Stockholm, North Korea will look again into the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped and taken to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, and probe the cases of other missing Japanese who could also have been abducted.
Japan, meanwhile, will ease its sanctions on North Korea, which include restrictions on travel and remittances between the two countries, once the reinvestigation is started.