ANKARA

Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday said she is "prepared" for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to bring back Japanese nationals "abducted" by the neighboring nation decades ago, local media reported.

In her first meeting with a group of the abductees' families since she became Japan's first female prime minister on Tuesday, Takaichi reaffirmed Tokyo's pledge to make "every" effort to bring back abductees, Kyodo News reported.

"Exercising leadership in my own way, I will find a breakthrough at all costs," she said, vowing that she will "never miss any opportunity to realize the early return" of the abductees.

Takaichi is known for sharing a conservative political stance and hawkish views on diplomacy and security with the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japan officially lists 17 people as "abducted" in the 1970s and 1980s by North Korea.

Five out of them were repatriated in October 2002 following landmark talks between the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang.

However, no major progress has been reported since.

North Korea, which fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Takaichi's first day in office, maintains that the abduction issue has been resolved.

Takaichi's government is arranging a meeting of the family members with US President Donald Trump during his planned three-day visit to Japan from Monday, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday, he said: "The abduction issue is a national sovereignty issue, and one of the top priority issues we need to resolve."

*Writing by Aamir Latif