TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has decided to lift part of its sanctions against North Korea, public broadcaster NHK said on Thursday, as Pyongyang showed signs of reinvestigating in earnest the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the reclusive state decades ago.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has committed to resolving the issue during his tenure, faces a tough task of keeping close consultations with the unpredictable state, while making sure that Tokyo does not appear soft on the North's missile and nuclear ambitions and out of step with the United States.
North Korea in May agreed to reopen the probe into the status of Japanese abductees. In return, Japan promised to lift travel curbs, restrictions on the amount of money that can be sent or brought to the impoverished North without notifying Japanese authorities, and allow port calls by North Korean ships for humanitarian purposes, when the investigation was launched.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Linda Sieg; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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