PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced the authority and organization of a special commission tasked with probing the past abductions of Japanese in the country during Tuesday's inter-governmental meeting with Japan in Beijing, the official KCNA reported Thursday.

At the meeting on Tuesday, the DPRK briefed on the authority, organization, operations and investigation methods of a special investigation committee which was established to resolve the issue, said the KCNA.

The Japanese side notified the items of anti-DPRK sanctions to be lifted and procedures in progress, it added.

In inter-governmental talks in May in Sweden, the two countries agreed to fully investigate the abduction of Japanese nationals. Japan, in return, agreed to lift sanctions against Pyongyang.

The DPRK said in 2002 that it abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s. Talks on the issue were shelved in December 2012, when the DPRK launched a long-range missile.

Eight of those abducted have died and the remaining five have been repatriated, said the DPRK.

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