A former Japanese abductee to North Korea on Thursday urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make efforts to bring back all victims by holding direct talks with the North's leader Kim Jong Un.

"We hope a Japan-North Korean summit would be realized as soon as possible, and I believe the prime minister is also thinking in that direction," Hitomi Soga said after her meeting with Abe at his office. Soga is among five Japanese kidnapped by the North decades ago but allowed in 2002 to return home.

During their meeting, Abe expressed his determination to settle the matter, saying, "Both countries should break the shell of mutual mistrust and start a new phase of diplomacy."

Abe, who maintains resolving the abduction issue is his government's top priority, said he hopes the abductees will reunite with their aging family members.

Soga, 59, said she wants to "hold tight" her mother Miyoshi, who along with her was snatched by North Korean agents 40 years ago.

The mayors of three cities in Niigata and Fukui prefectures, where the repatriated abductees are currently living, were also present during the meeting. Soga now lives in Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan.

(Japan PM Shinzo Abe, right, and ex-abductee Hitomi Soga, 3rd from right)

In a written request presented to Abe, the mayors urged the central government "not to miss this chance" to make headway in the abduction issue, referring to easing tensions surrounding North Korea following recent landmark summits.

They also called on the government to "proactively conduct direct negotiations with North Korea" toward the complete resolution of the issue.

Abe is seeking a face-to-face meeting with Kim following the inter-Korea summit in April and the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim in June.

During the unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore on June 12, Trump brought up the abduction issue at Abe's request.

The Japanese government officially lists 17 people as having been abducted by the North. Five of them returned in 2002, but Pyongyang maintains eight have died and four others never entered the country, including Miyoshi.