Japan stands firm on N.Korea aid ahead of talks

TOKYO, Feb 6 (Reuters) Japan today stood by its refusal to give aid to North Korea unless Pyongyang settles a feud over Japanese kidnapped decades ago, adding a new twist to this week's talks on ending the North's nuclear arms programme.

Diplomats have pointed to signs the impoverished communist state might be ready to accept an initial deal over demands that it stop building a nuclear arsenal in exchange for energy aid at the six-way talks, which resume in Beijing on Thursday.

US envoy Christopher Hill today said that any steps agreed to by North Korea at the talks should be carried out within three months, but added the Beijing meeting could not resolve everything.

Japan, for its part, is sticking to its tough stance on the matter of abductees. That could put Tokyo in a bind if this week's talks make progress toward ending the North's nuclear arms programmes.

''Even if it is decided and we are asked to give our share, we have no intention of providing energy, food and money easily unless other issues are resolved,'' Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told reporters.

The issue of the abductees, spirited away from their homeland in the 1970s and 1980s to help train North Korean spies in Japanese language and culture, is an emotive one in Japan.

It is also high on the agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made his name by talking tough to Pyongyang and who is unlikely to soften that tone at a time when his public support rate is slipping ahead of an upper house election in July.

ISOLATED But Japan could be isolated from other partners at the talks if it keeps its tough stance, analysts said.

''If Japan does not provide aid, it will be isolated. If it does give aid, then it will face harsh public opinion,'' said Noriyuki Suzuki, chief analyst at Tokyo-based Radiopress news agency, which specialises in monitoring North Korean media.

''Japan is scared by the possibility of an agreement being reached at the six-party talks to provide energy aid to North Korea.'' Hill, in Tokyo for bilateral talks before heading for Beijing, side-stepped the question of whether Japan's stance would hamper international efforts to resolve North Korea's nuclear issue through the six-party talks.

But he said the six-party process offered a ''very broad platform in which we can address a number of outstanding issues'' including the abduction issue.

''The abduction issue is very important in terms of advancing relations between Japan and North Korea as well as the six-party process,'' Japan's chief delegate to the talks, Kenichiro Sasae, standing next to Hill, told reporters.

''I believe the United States fully understands this.'' Hill also said bilateral issues between Japan and North Korea should be deal with through a ''mechanism'' within the six-party framework.

''There should be a mechanism for dealing with Japan's and DPRK (North Korea)'s outstanding concerns,'' Hill told reporters after meeting Aso.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese, sparking outrage in Japan.

Five of those were repatriated that same year, but Pyongyang says another eight are dead. Tokyo wants more information about the eight and four others it says were also kidnapped, and it wants survivors sent home.

Hill told Japanese reporters that any actions identified or announced in Beijing should be implemented within ''single-digit weeks,'' a U S embassy spokesman said.

Later, though, he said the Beijing talks would not lead to a complete resolution of North Korea's nuclear issue.

''Whether we can make some progress, and I was emphasising the fact that if we make some progress, we're not going to be able to resolve the nuclear issue and achieve the complete implementation of the September 2005 statement in one step,'' he told reporters after meeting Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki.

''We are going to need several steps.'' North Korea agreed in September 2005 to scrap its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

Hill said North Korea could demand that other parties provide it with fuel oil.

''I think it is quite possible that it will come up in the six-party context this weekend,'' he told reporters after meeting Sasae.

REUTERS SY RN1930