Tokyo and Pyongyang continued their
talks in Beijing yesterday, discussing ways to resolve the issue of
the abduction of Japanese nationals.
The issue has prevented Japan and the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (DPRK) from normalizing their diplomatic relations.
This is the first high-level bilateral contact in three years for
the two countries. The previous round of talks was held in Malaysia
in 2002.
The fresh round of talks are scheduled to cover the abduction
issue, normalization of diplomatic ties and regional security.
Three panels will each take a day for negotiations.
The Japanese head negotiator on the panel tasked with the abduction
issue is Kunio Umeda, deputy chief of the Foreign Ministry's Asian
and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. His counterpart from the DPRK is Kim
Chol-ho, head of the Foreign Ministry's Japanese Affairs
Section.
"There have been big differences regarding how to resolve the
abduction issue," Kim told reporters before the start of the
session.
In 2002, the DPRK admitted to
kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens and released five of them, saying
the other eight had died. Tokyo, however, still wants evidence of
the deaths and wants Pyongyang to fully investigate the cases of
other suspected abductees. In return, the DPRK wants to settle
historical issues regarding Japan's colonization of the Korean
Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Kunio said the kidnappings were the main concern for Japan and
demanded the DPRK take sincere and concrete steps to investigate
them.
Koichi Haraguchi and Song Il-ho are the ambassadors in charge of
bilateral ties for Japan and the DPRK respectively.
Tadamichi Yamamoto, Japanese envoy of the Korean Peninsula nuclear
issue, and Jong Thae-yang, deputy chief of the DPRK Foreign
Ministry's US Affairs Department, are scheduled to hold talks
tomorrow to tackle the nuclear issue.
(China Daily February 6,
2006)