No visible progress in Japan-N Korea ties talks

ULAN BATOR, Sep 6 (Reuters) Japan and North Korea today wrapped up two days of talks on establishing diplomatic relations without visible progress in disputes over key issues that have hampered efforts to improve bilateral ties.

But the World War Two foes agreed to meet again and strive to normalise diplomatic relations.

The talks in the Mongolian capital kicked off with guarded optimism, after Washington and Pyongyang appeared to move forward in similar discussions at the weekend.

But the Japanese and North Korean envoys failed to score a breakthrough in the thorny row over the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents decades ago -- the resolution of which Tokyo has made a condition of normalising ties.

Japan's chief negotiator, Yoshiki Mine, said the North Koreans had refused to take action to resolve the abduction row.

''We had in-depth and lengthy discussions on the abduction issue in the morning,'' Mine said. ''We stressed that it is indispensable for us to normalise diplomatic relations after resolving the abduction issue. We urged the North Korean side to take specific action.'' A North Korean delegate said his team had repeated Pyongyang's position that the case on abductions was closed.

''The relations between Japan and North Korea are at the worst level now,'' North Korean delegate Kim Chol-ho told reporters after the talks.

But he said Pyongyang was ready for more talks with Tokyo.

''We think that the meeting was held in a very serious atmosphere and both sides reaffirmed their commitments to previous agreements,'' Kim said. ''We need to meet more often.'' KIDNAPPING, COMPENSATION North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese, sparking outrage in Japan.

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

The bilateral talks are one of the building blocks in a six-party process also involving the United States, China, South Korea and Russia, aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons.

During the talks in Ulan Bator, North Korea demanded that Japan make compensation for its often-brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

''Although pending issues have not been resolved through the two days of talks, I believe it was meaningful to have been able to exchange views thoroughly,'' Mine said.

Tokyo would consider setting up a committee to look into compensation if Pyongyang agreed to reopen the kidnapping investigation.

Japan paid hundreds of millions of dollars under a 1965 agreement normalising relations with South Korea. Analysts say an equivalent sum was likely to be required to establish ties with the North.

But making such a payment would be politically difficult while the fate of the abductees remains unclear.

Earlier today in Tokyo, a pro-Pyongyang group of ethnic Koreans in Japan asked for Japanese sanctions against North Korea to be lifted temporarily so it could send aid for flood victims in the impoverished state.

The sanctions, along with other punitive measures including a ban on all imports from North Korea, was slapped on Pyongyang after it conducted a nuclear test last October.

REUTERS JK PM1716