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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a tentative step toward improved relations with North Korea on Thursday by announcing his government will lift some of its sanctions in response to the North's decision to re-open a probe into the fate of at least a dozen Japanese believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.

Abe said he was satisfied that a North Korean investigation committee has the mandate to carry out a serious investigation into the abductions, though previous deals with the North have fallen through. Japan will continue to abide by U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

"We have determined that an unprecedented framework has been established, where an organization that can make decisions at a national level ... will be at the forefront of the investigations," Abe said. "However, this is only a start. We are determined to do everything we can, with a renewed effort, toward a comprehensive resolution."

Abe's decision is to be formally approved by his Cabinet on Friday, after the committee holds its first meeting. The announcement follows talks between North Korean and Japanese negotiators in Beijing earlier this week.

North Korea's state media put out their first report on the talks shortly after Abe's announcement, saying the North's negotiators briefed their Japanese counterparts on the composition of the committee and how it will work.

"Both sides agreed to take necessary measures in the days ahead, while getting in touch with each other through a diplomatic channel," said the report by the Korean Central News Agency.

In Seoul, Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said South Korea looks forward to an early resolution of the abduction issue. But he said any steps taken by Japan shouldn't undermine international cooperation on the North Korean nuclear and missile standoffs.

"The government of the Republic of Korea once again stresses that the Japan-North Korea consultations, including on easing Japan's unilateral sanctions on North Korea, should, by all means, be held in a transparent manner and that all the relevant measures by Japan should be taken in a way that does not undermine the coordination among the ROK, the U.S. and Japan on North Korea's nuclear and missile issues," Noh told a regular briefing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing, North Korea's closest ally, hopes the improvement in Japan-North Korea relations resulting from the negotiations will be "conducive to regional peace and stability."

After years of denial, North Korea acknowledged in 2002 that its agents had abducted Japanese citizens to train its spies in the 1970s and '80s and eventually returned five of them. It said others Japan said were abducted had died or never entered the North. Tokyo disputes that and wants an investigation into at least 12 abduction cases.

Even that may not be enough, however.

Private organizations say hundreds of Japanese citizens were abducted, and suspect many may still be living in the North. Abe has vowed not to relent until all the abductees are returned or accounted for.

Though Tokyo is as concerned about North Korea's nuclear program as its allies in Washington and Seoul, the abduction issue has for years been an added complication in its relations with the North, creating both anger among the Japanese public and strong calls for an agreement to bring any survivors home.

Although North Korea made a similar agreement in 2008 to investigate, that deal fell through and relations between the countries have been virtually frozen since.

In addition to the U.N. sanctions, Japan unilaterally bans port calls by any North Korean-flagged vessels, all trade with North Korea and the entry into Japan of North Korean citizens. Abe's decision will ease travel restrictions, allow port calls for humanitarian purposes and loosen requirements on reporting money transfers to the North.

Japanese officials say the eased sanctions will not give a significant economic boost to North Korea or weaken the impact of international efforts to punish and isolate the North for its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea also is under sanctions based on U.N. resolutions since 2006 that include an arms trade ban, a freeze of North Korean assets, a ban on people exchanges and restrictions on education and training.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo wants the abduction investigation to be wrapped up "within one year." In Beijing, North Korea's negotiators said they will conduct the investigation promptly.

"We were able to open North Korea's door that had been closed for many years, and we are now at a starting line after patient negotiations," Suga said. "This is something that has never happened before. We will watch developments very closely."

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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report. Talmadge is the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/EricTalmadge.

NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 21.6 million people watched Belgium knock out the United States soccer team in the World Cup on U.S. television — an impressive total for a weekday afternoon that almost certainly undercounts how many people actually saw it.

The Nielsen company said Wednesday that 16.5 million people watched the game on ESPN, with 5.1 million more seeing it on the Spanish-language Univision network. In addition, nearly 1.7 million people watched an online stream of the event, Nielsen said.

The record U.S. television audience for soccer is the 24.7 million who saw the United States play Portugal on June 24, which tied the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands.

The Portugal game took place on a weekend, however, when there were more people with free time available to watch. The U.S.-Belgium game started at 4 p.m. on the East Coast, earlier in other time zones, during a working day.

Nielsen does not measure viewership in bars, offices or other public places. In 2010, ESPN estimated that the stated audience size for weekday World Cup games would increase by 23 percent if public viewing were taken into account.

Still, Tuesday's knockout game exceeded the average viewership for the most recent World Series and NBA Finals, events that took place during prime-time when more people were home to watch.

The just-concluded NBA series where the San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat averaged 15.5 million viewers, with 18 million watching the final game. Last fall's World Series averaged 14.9 million viewers, with 19.2 million watching the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the last game.

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said Thursday that everyone connected with the soccer team is excited to see how the sport is reaching a U.S. audience. He could see it coming, given the popularity of the game among young people and the large crowds that turned out for the team's sendoff games before the World Cup.

"Soccer is breaking through and gets its deserved recognition without taking anything away from the other big American sports," Klinsmann said.

He said it's important for people to identify with the way Americans played the game.

"The energy and the commitment and the tempo and the aggressiveness that we played with kind of made people proud at home and surprised a lot of people outside of the United States, maybe in Brazil or in Europe," he said.

The highest overall ratings for the U.S.-Belgium game came in New York, Nielsen said.

ESPN said that overall viewership for the World Cup is up 44 percent over 2010.

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AP Sports Writer Ron Blum contributed to this report.

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered the maximum sentence for a 12-year-old boy who opened fire in a New Mexico middle school gym earlier this year, injuring two students.

After a daylong hearing, state District Judge Freddy Romero ordered the boy held in state custody until he is 21.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum punishment for the boy, who pleaded no contest to the January shooting in Roswell. His lawyers asked that he be placed in treatment for two years and then released if doctors determine he is no longer a threat.

A defense memo said the boy was chronically bullied, is socially and emotionally immature, and regrets what he did.

Roswell police said the boy took a modified shotgun to Berrendo Middle School in southeastern New Mexico on Jan. 14 and opened fire on students as they waited for classes to begin.

Nathaniel Tavarez, 12, and Kendal Sanders, 13, were injured in the shooting, which sent the school into a panic. Tavarez spent weeks in hospitals and rehabilitation centers for treatment of wounds to his chest, heart, face and head. His vision in both eyes has been severely diminished.

Sanders was later released from a hospital after surgeries to repair damage to her right arm and shoulder.

The boy was charged with three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of carrying a firearm on school premises. His lawyers have said his no-contest plea acknowledged the "limitations in decision-making of an immature brain."

Under New Mexico law, the state can charge minors as adults only if they are at least 14.

The Associated Press typically doesn't identify juveniles charged with crimes.

NEW YORK (AP) — "There's the Mooch," says Ben Falcone brightly as his wife, Melissa McCarthy, enters the room.

It's a term of endearment, a long-used nickname between the two who have been paired in love and comedy since they were aspiring performers at the Groundlings, the Los Angeles improv school. Their long partnership reaches a professional crescendo Friday with the release of "Tammy," a road trip comedy they wrote together that McCarthy stars in and Falcone directs.

McCarthy and Falcone, who married in 2005 and have two daughters, are incredibly sweet together — riffing easily and warmly complimenting each other — but you wouldn't know their marital harmony from their movies. Their on-screen relationship is far more combustible.

Falcone was the undercover air marshal in McCarthy's breakout, "Bridesmaids," and he played McCarthy's clingy former lover in "The Heat." In "Tammy," she hurls put-downs and ketchup packets at him after Falcone, playing her boss, fires her from a fast food joint.

"Tammy" was born when Falcone woke up one morning, groggy from a dream envisioning McCarthy and her alcoholic grandmother (played by Susan Sarandon) embarking on a journey away from their small Illinois town. After six years of working on it (and buoyed by McCarthy's now considerable box-office clout), their personal little comedy (both are from Illinois) is opening in the heart of summer blockbuster season.

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AP: Melissa, you went to college in Ben's hometown, Carbondale, Illinois. Did you ever meet there?

Falcone: I knew who she was. She went through a Goth phase.

McCarthy: I didn't know it but he said we were at the same parties together — which I just find the most bizarre thing. It wasn't until 10 years later that we met.

Falcone: After a year of being friends, we started putting it together. She had blue hair and clown makeup.

McCarthy: I prefer to say kabuki white. "Clown" has sort of a negative connotation.

AP: Did you have similar upbringings?

Falcone: She was probably more popular than me.

McCarthy: I don't know about that.

Falcone: I definitely think so. I wasn't, like, unpopular. (McCarthy starts cackling. Ben shifts into character.) "Listen! Listen! I was super popular!" I storm out of the interview and jump through the glass windows.

AP: So you actually met later in Los Angeles?

McCarthy: We met at a Groundlings class. We immediately were improvising with each other and immediately gravitating toward each other, writing-wise. The first day, everybody's doing their biggest, probably most unrealistic, poorly done characters. And Ben got up there and did this very strange inmate that sat on a chair quietly. I just thought it was the funniest thing. I thought: I like that creepy guy.

AP: Ben, do you remember the first time you saw Melissa perform?

Falcone: It was in that class. ... Her character kept going to the same Kinko's and talking to a guy name Todd. She said the name about forty hundred billion times, like, "Hey Todd. How you doin' Todd? Anyway, Todd, I just need a couple more copies." And it was obvious she was not there for copies at all. She was just there to talk to Todd. It was a super funny and great character — spazzy and fun.

AP: Were you crafting volatile characters from the start?

McCarthy: I love to have a character with a firm belief in their point of view, no matter what it is. It doesn't always have to be aggressive. It can be a really shy person who really wants a cul-de-sac on the end of her block.

Falcone: She steals from everybody. Bits and pieces and then she puts them inside herself. People that she grew up with or relatives.

McCarthy: The fun is, if you can justify it, then it can make sense. I always think in real life, people do so many strange things.

AP: In "Tammy," you throw ketchup packets at your real-life husband.

Falcone: Her suggestion.

McCarthy: You were screaming, "My eyes!" because of those corners, which may have kind of fueled my fire. Which is terrible because in real life, I would never do that. If anything hurt, I would be like, "Oh my god."

Falcone: I would hope that you'd never be throwing ketchup packets at me in the first place.

AP: Given your success together, these must be good times.

McCarthy: We've been doing it for 20 years for free, with cheaper wigs. We would have kept doing it. If the opportunities that we have now wouldn't have come up, I still think we'd be at the Groundlings doing the same thing: building crazy costumes and crazy sets that do or don't work.

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/jake_coyle