Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a bid to speed up normalization of ties between their countries, the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday. Koizumi’s message outlined steps the North must take on the road to proper diplomatic relations and was passed on verbally when Japan’s representative Koichi Haraguchi met with the North's Song Il-ho in Beijing on Feb. 4-8.

The paper said Koizumi referred to the “Pyongyang Statement,” an agreement signed when the premier was in Pyongyang in September 2002, and called on the North Korean leader to resolve matters that stand in the way of friendly ties. The Pyongyang statement calls for clearing up the troubled history between the two countries and resolving lingering resentment over matters like Japan’s occupation of Korea and North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens. The paper interpreted the message as a bid to expedite the dialogue process.


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