Japan is to partially lift sanctions against North Korea after it agreed to a new probe into abducted Japanese nationals, a Japanese minister said.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said a ban on charter flights and travel between the two sides would be lifted.

In return, Pyongyang would re-examine cases of a number of Japanese people seized by North Korean agents decades ago to train spies, he said.

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North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most are thought to have been used to help train North Korean spies.

It has returned five of them and says the remaining eight are dead. In the past it has insisted that the issue has been resolved.

But Japan wants concrete proof of the deaths and believes that several more of its citizens were taken.

Japan imposed sanctions on North Korea after it conducted a nuclear test in October 2006.

(BBC)

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