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On March 6, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a meeting with families of abductees and others at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
The Prime Minister said in his address,
 
“Thank you very much for taking time to visit the Prime Minister’s Office today amidst your busy schedules.
 
With regard to the outcome of the second U.S.-North Korea Summit Meeting held in Hanoi recently, I held a summit telephone talk with President Trump immediately after and heard the current status. Taking this opportunity, I would now like to share the report on this matter with you.
 
I told President Trump that, on the outcome of the summit meeting, Japan supports his decision not to make concessions to North Korea easily and at the same time, to continue constructive discussions, which were made with his strong determination to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
 
At the same time, when I spoke to President Trump on the telephone before the summit meeting, I once again explained that Japan places great emphasis on the resolution of the abductions issue, and asked him to convey to Chairman Kim Jong-Un my outlook regarding the resolution of this issue. According to President Trump, he raised the abductions issue and conveyed my position on this matter to Chairman Kim Jong-Un at the one-on-one meeting. Furthermore, he continued to raise this issue at the dinner following that meeting which had involved only a small number of people, and the two leaders held a serious discussion on that matter.
 
Moving forward, as the United States maintains its policy to engage in consultations with North Korea, we would like to work on the abductions issue based on our basic policy of not missing out any possible opportunities. To that end, in order to resolve this issue, I believe that I, myself, have to meet face-to-face with Chairman Kim Jong-Un next. I will speak to you again on the details after this.”