A group representing families of Japanese abducted by North Korea says the issue's urgency is growing as its members age. The group has adopted a new action plan demanding the return of all abductees while their parents are alive.

The group had a meeting with supporters in Tokyo on Sunday to adopt its new plan.

It asks the Japanese government to make the abductees' return a precondition for Tokyo to offer humanitarian assistance to Pyongyang, to lift sanctions and to start economic cooperation if ties are normalized.

The group emphasizes it will call for much stricter sanctions on the North if the abductees do not return home within the time frame.

Group head Yokota Takuya says time is running out, and the group demands that North Korea return all the abductees to Japan so that they will be reunited without failure with their families, including brothers or sisters, in Japan.

He also says that they will never make any concessions to North Korea's atrocious human rights abuses.

The families previously said they would not oppose the Japanese government providing humanitarian aid to North Korea and lifting its sanctions if all abductees are returned.

But the relatives are now referring to strengthening sanctions to convey how seriously they take the new time limit to resolve the issue.