North Korea has invited a Japanese envoy to Pyongyang to hear details of its investigation into the Cold War kidnappings of Japanese citizens, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday.

Tokyo announced in July it was easing sanctions against Pyongyang, following its promise to reinvestigate the cases of the abductees.

During their latest talks in China on Monday, the North Korean side said it was too early to report detailed results of the investigation, Abe told reporters.

But the North asked a Japanese envoy to visit Pyongyang to "meet members of the special investigation committee directly and hear about details of the current state of the probe", he said.

The government is considering dispatching foreign ministry officials to Pyongyang, Jiji Press said.

Japan believes dozens of people were snatched in the 1970s and 1980s to train the North's spies in the Japanese language and customs.

Japanese officials had expected the report by September, but North Korea recently said it would be unable to supply substantial details by then.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens to train its spies.

Five of the abductees returned home but Pyongyang said -- without producing credible evidence -- that the eight others had died.

That claim provoked uproar in Japan, where there are suspicions that dozens or perhaps even hundreds of others were taken.

Tokyo and Pyongyang have no formal diplomatic ties, partially because of what Japan says is the North's unwillingness to come clean over the abductions.