North Korea slammed South Korea on Saturday for making critical comments on a Japanese official's recent visit to Pyongyang, calling it an "unprecedented precipitancy."
Isao Lijima, an adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, returned to Tokyo Friday after a surprise four-day visit to North Korea. In Pyongyang, he met with high-ranking officials, including Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Little has been known about the purpose of Lijima's trip, but the two sides reportedly discussed wide-ranging issues of mutual interest, including ways to resolve ongoing disputes over the abduction of about a dozen Japanese nationals by North Korea decades ago.