Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed his desire to hold a summit meeting with North Korea with an aim to resolving the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea. The Japanese side intends to convey Japan’s stance to North Korea while probing Pyongyang’s intent through the contact in Mongolia.

The conference, known as the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue, is organized by the Mongolian government among others. Diplomatic officials including those from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and North Korea are scheduled to attend.

At the previous conference in June last year, a Japanese deputy director general of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau briefly talked to a North Korean Foreign Ministry official at the Institute for American Studies.