Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without preconditions, said Hirokazu Matsuno, secretary general of the Japanese government, RIA Novosti reported.

Japan has consistently advocated a comprehensive solution based on the Japan-North Korea declaration to the problem of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea, the nuclear and missile problem, drawing a line under the unhappy past and striving to normalize relations. This direction is unchangeable, Matsuno said.

According to him, Prime Minister Kishida is willing to hold a meeting with Kim Jong-un for the speedy return of all abductees to their homeland.

One of Tokyo's major conflicts with the DPRK centers around Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean intelligence agencies in the 1970s and 1980s for the purpose of training North Korean spies in Japanese. Tokyo believes that Pyongyang kidnapped a total of about 17 Japanese.