Japan and North Korea are inching towards a meeting of their two leaders, with Kim Jong Un and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida looking to achieve a breakthrough in a relationship that has been icy for decades.

Kishida told Japan's parliament earlier this month that he wants to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim, and is personally overseeing high-level discussions with Pyongyang.

A meeting would be the first between the leaders of the two nations since former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi travelled to Pyongyang in May 2004 and convinced Kim Jong Il, the father of the present North Korean leader, to release five Japanese nationals who had been abducted by the North's spies.

Nearly 20 years later, Kim Jong Un and Kishida will be hoping to wring concessions out of each other to bolster their own political positions, although analysts caution that many hurdles still have to be cleared before the two men can meet face to face.

Kishida is hoping to make progress on the fate of yet more Japanese nationals who were kidnapped by the North in the 1970s and 1980s, with 12 still officially listed as being held in the North.

Campaigners in Japan insist the real figure is well over 100. Kishida appears to be calculating that a breakthrough on the abductions – and possibly even the return of some of them – will improve his standing in the public opinion polls ahead........

© Deutsche Welle