NKorea wants Japan to keep 2002 summit deal-Kyodo

TOKYO, Sep 16 (Reuters) North Korea wants Japan's next prime minister to implement a 2002 pact committing the two wary neighbours to work to establish diplomatic ties, Kyodo news agency today quoted a North Korean official as saying.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, known for his tough stance toward Pyongyang, is expected to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi after winning a ruling party leadership contest next Wednesday.

If Japan's new leadership ''hopes to prosper together with us as neighbours with friendly relations, it should abandon its policy of hostility against our country and work to sincerely implement the Pyongyang Declaration'', Kyodo quoted Jong Thae Hwa, a former top negotiator in normalisation talks with Japan, as saying.

In the ''Pyongyang Declaration'', agreed upon at Koizumi's 2002 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Pyongyang pledged to uphold all international treaties on nuclear issues, extend a moratorium on ballistic missile launches and resolve all issues related to the ''lives and security'' of Japanese nationals, a reference to Japanese kidnapped by its agents decades ago.

Koizumi apologised for Japan's often brutal 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula and said it would be appropriate for Japan to provide economic aid to North Korea after ties were normalised, but rejected demands for reparations.

Since then, North Korea has declared itself a nuclear weapons power and in July stunned the region by firing a barrage of missiles.

Jong said relations between the two countries had ''not only not improved, but reached their worst state'', but he added that the Pyongyang Declaration was a ''milestone'' for improving ties.

''Whether the declaration will be implemented or not relies solely on Japan,'' Kyodo quoted him as saying.

Pyongyang has not only outraged Japan with July's missile tests, but further irritated Tokyo by showing no sign of willingness to return to stalled six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme or to settle the dispute over the Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.

Japanese media have reported Japan may freeze as soon Tuesday the financial assets of groups and individuals it suspects of links to Pyongyang's development of weapons of mass destruction.

Japan has already banned from its ports for six months a North Korean ferry that provides the only direct passenger link between the two countries, and it has barred the entry of government officials from the communist state.

REUTERS SY RK1800