Japan, North Korea to discuss abduction issue

Hanoi, Mar 6: North Korea accepted a proposal by Japan to discuss the sensitive issue of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens as they try to smoothe the way toward diplomatic ties, a Japanese official said today.

''I have a feeling that they are fully prepared for discussions,'' chief negotiator Koichi Haraguchi told reporters after a preparatory meeting with the North Korean delegation before formal talks tomorrow and on Thursday in Hanoi.

Haraguchi arrived in the Vietnamese capital yesterday and urged communist North Korea to make a ''strategic decision'' on the abductee issue.

After a one-hour meeting today with the delegation headed by diplomat Song Il-ho, the Japanese official said: ''There are no differences between the two parties over the fact that two issues exist -- the abductees and normalisation of diplomatic relations.'' Japan wants more information about the abduction of some of its citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies in Japanese language and culture, while North Korea has previously said the matter is closed.

The talks in Vietnam follow a complex deal reached by six countries on February. 13 under which communist North Korea promised to scrap its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for aid.

Japan says it will not give full-scale economic assistance to North Korea or establish diplomatic ties unless the abductee dispute is resolved. North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese, sparking outrage in Japan. Five of those were repatriated and Pyongyang says the other eight are dead.

INFORMAL ENCOUNTERS

In Tokyo today, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stressed that the abduction issue was one that Japan would not give up.

''In the six-way talks, of course solving the nuclear issue is a large theme,'' he told a parliamentary committee.

''But for Japan the abduction issue is also one that absolutely cannot be abandoned,'' Abe said. ''To solve this, to solve the issues between Japan and North Korea, unless they change their stance we can't fundamentally change ours.'' Today's ''informal'' encounters at the Japanese embassy in Hanoi were designed to set the agenda for tomorrow and Thursday -- their first full-fledged discussions in more than a year on forging diplomatic ties. Their previous talks in Beijing did not make visible progress.

The two sides would discuss abductees tomorrow at the Japanese embassy and normalisation of diplomatic relations at the North Korean embassy on Thursday, Haraguchi said.

Under the six-party deal, North Korea would receive energy aid in exchange for ''disabling'' its nuclear facilities. But Japan has refused to pitch in.

For its part, North Korea is expected to press for settlement of issues stemming from Japan's harsh 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

In a September 2002 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologised for Japan's actions but he rejected demands for reparations.

The Hanoi meetings and separate talks in New York yesterday between the United States and North Korea begin the implementation of the deal reached in Beijing last month by the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.

REUTERS

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