North Korea Kidnapping

United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he supported his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida's attempts to hold face-to-face talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korean defectors in Tokyo symbolically summoned Kim Jong Un to court on Thursday over a repatriation programme they describe as "state kidnapping".

An Australian student who was briefly detained in North Korea last year over spy charges said he had been kidnapped by secret police and forced to make a false confession, according to an article written by him and seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

North Korea has released a video appeal by the parents of one of 12 waitresses that Pyongyang insists were kidnapped by South Korean agents from the restaurant where they were working in China.

The stranger-than-fiction story about a famous South Korean film director and a glamorous actress abducted by North Korea's movie-obsessed Kim Jong-il has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national abducted by North Korean agents decades ago as a schoolgirl, died from an overdose of medication in 1994 and was buried in a pit with other corpses, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.

Japanese and North Korean officials will meet next week for an update on the North's probe into the fate of Japanese citizens it kidnapped decades ago, Japan's top government spokesman said on Thursday.

Japan on Friday froze the assets of the operator of a North Korean ship seized for smuggling arms, the Foreign Ministry said, just as Tokyo is engaged in talks with Pyongyang to return Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago.

Japan will decide whether to ease sanctions against North Korea on Thursday after assessing Pyongyang's plan to reinvestigate the fate of the Japanese citizens kidnapped by the reclusive state decades ago, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said.

Japan and North Korea are preparing to hold fresh talks after Pyongyang's surprise pledge to probe the Cold War kidnappings of Japanese nationals, a report said Sunday.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may make a rare visit to North Korea, his foreign minister said on Tuesday, days after announcing a deal to re-open the probe into Japanese citizens kidnapped by spies in the Cold War years.

North Korea's surprise pledge to probe Cold War kidnappings of Japanese nationals is an attempt to divide its foes that could benefit its nuclear and missile programmes if Tokyo eases sanctions in return, analysts say.

North Korea has agreed to open a new investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens whom it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s, Japan and North Korea said Thursday.

Chinese authorities were on Sunday investigating claims that unidentified North Koreans hijacked a Chinese fishing boat, kidnapping 16 sailors and demanding a ransom, local media and an official said.

An aide to the Japanese premier returned home from a controversial trip to North Korea on Saturday, reportedly saying he had demanded Pyongyang's act swiftly on its kidnapping of Japanese nationals.

United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he supported his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida's attempts to hold face-to-face talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korean defectors in Tokyo symbolically summoned Kim Jong Un to court on Thursday over a repatriation programme they describe as "state kidnapping".

An Australian student who was briefly detained in North Korea last year over spy charges said he had been kidnapped by secret police and forced to make a false confession, according to an article written by him and seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

North Korea has released a video appeal by the parents of one of 12 waitresses that Pyongyang insists were kidnapped by South Korean agents from the restaurant where they were working in China.

The stranger-than-fiction story about a famous South Korean film director and a glamorous actress abducted by North Korea's movie-obsessed Kim Jong-il has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national abducted by North Korean agents decades ago as a schoolgirl, died from an overdose of medication in 1994 and was buried in a pit with other corpses, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.

Japanese and North Korean officials will meet next week for an update on the North's probe into the fate of Japanese citizens it kidnapped decades ago, Japan's top government spokesman said on Thursday.

Japan on Friday froze the assets of the operator of a North Korean ship seized for smuggling arms, the Foreign Ministry said, just as Tokyo is engaged in talks with Pyongyang to return Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago.

Japan will decide whether to ease sanctions against North Korea on Thursday after assessing Pyongyang's plan to reinvestigate the fate of the Japanese citizens kidnapped by the reclusive state decades ago, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said.

Japan and North Korea are preparing to hold fresh talks after Pyongyang's surprise pledge to probe the Cold War kidnappings of Japanese nationals, a report said Sunday.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may make a rare visit to North Korea, his foreign minister said on Tuesday, days after announcing a deal to re-open the probe into Japanese citizens kidnapped by spies in the Cold War years.

North Korea's surprise pledge to probe Cold War kidnappings of Japanese nationals is an attempt to divide its foes that could benefit its nuclear and missile programmes if Tokyo eases sanctions in return, analysts say.

North Korea has agreed to open a new investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens whom it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s, Japan and North Korea said Thursday.

Chinese authorities were on Sunday investigating claims that unidentified North Koreans hijacked a Chinese fishing boat, kidnapping 16 sailors and demanding a ransom, local media and an official said.

An aide to the Japanese premier returned home from a controversial trip to North Korea on Saturday, reportedly saying he had demanded Pyongyang's act swiftly on its kidnapping of Japanese nationals.