[USFK Forums] N. Korea, Japan to resume talks on relations, abductions [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Sunday, January 29, 2006

N. Korea, Japan to resume talks on relations, abductions

2006/01/28 11:47

TOKYO, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and Japan will resume talks in Beijing on Feb. 4 to discuss normalizing diplomatic ties, according to Japan's top government spokesman Saturday.

The working-level talks will also deal with Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese citizens and the communist regime's nuclear weapons program for four or five days from next Saturday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

The planned resumption in bilateral talks comes as Pyongyang said it won't return to international negotiations over its nuclear programs until the U.S. lifts financial sanctions over alleged illicit activities, including counterfeiting, by the communist regime.

The two sides held working-level talks on establishing diplomatic ties in November for the first time in more than a year.

But the talks stalled over Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens, nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and its demand for compensation for Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

In an effort to make a breakthrough, they agreed in December to hold three separate talks on the issues.

In 2002, North Korea acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, and allowed five of them to return to Japan, claiming the others were dead.

Tokyo, however, has demanded proof of the deaths and a full
investigation into other suspected kidnapping cases.

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