A former classmate of Japanese national Yokota Megumi, who was abducted to North Korea, spoke to students about her on Monday at their alma mater.

North Korean agents kidnapped her on November 15, 1977, while she was on her way home from her junior high school.

Hasuike Kaoru, who spent more than two decades in North Korea after being abducted, told NHK in an interview that the Japanese government should carefully analyze the circumstances surrounding Pyongyang and engage in strategic negotiations with the North.

Hasuike and his then girlfriend, now his wife, were taken from Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast by North Korean agents in 1978.

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has vowed to relatives of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea that he will spearhead efforts to bring their loved ones home.

Suga met with the families of abductees at the prime minister's office on Tuesday, for the first time since he assumed the post earlier this month.

The father of a Japanese man who was abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and returned to Japan decades later has died.

Informed sources say Chimura Tamotsu died on Friday at the age of 93 at a hospital in the city of Obama in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.

A funeral has been held for the father of Yokota Megumi, a Japanese national abducted and taken to North Korea in the 1970s.

Yokota Shigeru spent half his life trying to bring his daughter home from North Korea. He died on Friday at the age of 87 without being able to see his loved one again.