Japan officials raid N.Korean freighter

TOKYO, March 7 (Reuters) Japanese police, coast guard and immigration officials today raided a North Korean freighter, which media reports said had been involved in an illegal shipment of ingredients for sarin nerve gas to North Korea a decade ago.

The raid comes at a time some ruling party politicians and activists have called for economic sanctions against Pyongyang for refusing to resolve a dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.

Police declined to confirm that they were raiding the 2,705-tonne freighter, but coast guard officials said they were conducting what they called ''regular inspections'' of the ship in Tokyo Bay.

Media reports said the vessel had carried ingredients for sarin nerve gas to North Korea from the Japanese cities of Osaka and Kobe 10 years ago.

Several Transport Ministry officials were expected to inspect the vessel later today, a ministry official said.

Japan and North Korea held talks in Beijing last month on normalising diplomatic ties, but they failed to make progress.

Japan and North Korea are locked in a bitter dispute over North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s.

North Korea has admitted abducting 13 people, eight of whom it says are dead. Pyongyang has said the abductees issue is settled, but Tokyo wants more information about the eight and another three it says were also kidnapped.

Japan has said it would not normalise ties with North Korea unless the abduction issue was resolved.

REUTERS SI PM1129