North Korea-Japan talks session called off

Hanoi, Mar 7: An afternoon session of talks between North Korea and Japan was cancelled today and it was unclear when the two countries would resume meetings about working toward diplomatic relations, officials said.

A North Korean embassy official and Japanese officials said there would be no meeting as scheduled at the North Korean embassy in the Vietnamese capital.

The Japanese officials said it was unclear whether the talks would resume later in the day. A photo opportunity at the embassy was cancelled.

Asked by reporters in Tokyo about the possibility of the March 7 and 8 talks collapsing, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: ''The negotiations just got under way. Lots of things happen when negotiating with North Korea. There is no need to be in a hurry.'' Japanese and North Korean diplomats met in the morning at the Japanese embassy on the sensitive issue of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s.

The discussions were part of efforts by the two countries to work toward establishing diplomatic relations under an agreement reached in six-party talks last month for North Korea to start shutting down its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for millions of dollars in energy aid.

Tomorrow's agenda called for talks on resuming diplomatic relations, which Tokyo says is impossible without resolution of the abductee issue.

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.

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

REUTERS

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