Japan and North Korea say they will hold talks next week in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said Friday that the talks will be held next Thursday and Friday and will focus on ways to improve relations.

Japanese media reported Friday that Tokyo will raise the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the Stalinist country during the Cold War to train North Korean spies. Tokyo believes that one of those kidnapped may still be alive and living in the North, but Pyongyang denies it.

Working-level officials from the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties, met in Beijing in late August, the first contact between the two countries in two years.