In U.N. speech, Japan's spokesman Yoshihide Suga reframes abduction issue as 'global challenge'

NEW YORK –

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called Friday for an early resolution to the decades-old issue of North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, saying it is a "global challenge."

Speaking at an event at U.N. headquarters in New York, he said the government has been injecting "maximum effort" to realize the return of all abductees "at the earliest possible timing."