[USFK Forums] Kidnapping issue proves a hurdle as Japan, North conclude talks [AFP]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee, Sunday, November 6, 2005] Here is a news being supplied by Yahoo! Alerts as follows:
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Kidnapping issue proves a hurdle as Japan, North Korea conclude talks

AFP, Fri Nov 4,12:45 PM ET

Japan and North Korea concluded two days of high-level talks in Beijing, apparently giving little ground on long-standing points of tension but agreeing to meet again.

Delegates from the Asian rivals were in China for their first bilateral talks in a year, with the highly emotive issue of the North's kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s the main item on the agenda.

"Sometimes they had heated discussions," said a Japanese official, who asked not to be named.

"Over the two days, they met for a total of 12 hours ... They will meet again in the future," he said Friday. Where or when the next round of talks would be held had not been decided, he added.

The North Koreans came to the Chinese capital apparently set on not backing down on the abduction issue, while also looking to focus on compensation for Japan's colonial rule of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told a press conference in Tokyo on Friday that little progress was being made, Kyodo news agency reported.

"Their position is that the issue has been solved, and I have not heard that the atmosphere has suddenly become one in which they show their willingness to solve it in a serious and forward-looking manner," Aso said.

A Japanese official in Beijing told AFP both sides were being direct in putting their positions forward. He said the atmosphere "was neither negative nor positive" but agreed any major breakthrough was unlikely.

"It's very hard to imagine," he said. "The old issues they are talking about are very hard and complicated. It's not realistic to reach a conclusion in one or two days."
North Korea's chief delegate, Song Il-Ho, said after the opening day of talks that his side had not offered up any new solutions to the kidnapping issue.

Japan's Jiji press quoted Song as saying during Friday's lunch break that the meeting was likely to be wrapped up later in the day.

He echoed the Japanese side's assessment of diplomatic gridlock but said both sides were approaching the talks with sincerity.

"We are dealing with the same agenda as yesterday. It is not a matter that can be settled through contact for one or two hours," Jiji quoted Song as saying.

"We have stated our respective positions and had discussions. The atmosphere is sincere." Japan has publicly made clear its top priority at the meeting is to seek a proper resolution on the kidnapping issue. At a historic summit in 2002 between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang, North Korea admitted having kidnapping Japanese citizens to train its spies.

It declared the issue settled after repatriating five kidnap victims along with their families following the first Koizumi-Kim summit and a second in 2004.

The North says that other abducted Japanese are dead. Japan has insisted the others -- at least eight -- are still alive and kept under wraps because they know too many secrets.

Japan's newly installed chief cabinet secretary, Shinzo Abe, and other hawks in the Koizumi administration have warned Tokyo may be prepared to use economic sanctions against impoverished North Korea unless the issue is resolved.

North Korea's nuclear program is another issue of concern to Japan, although Japanese officials in Beijing for the bilateral dialogue have indicated they do no want to interfere with the six-party process under way.

The fifth round of six-party talks, grouping senior government officials from the United States, China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and North Korea, will be held in Beijing starting on Wednesday.

The six-party talks, which began more than two years ago, are aimed at getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.