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North Korea, Japan to Meet in January Regardless of Six- Party Talks

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Beijing, 27 December: Japan and North Korea plan to hold talks in January as agreed this weekend, regardless of whether or not the six- party negotiations on its nuclear programmes resume in the near future, Japanese and North Korean diplomats said Tuesday [27 December].

Song Il-ho, who headed the country's delegation to its weekend working-level talks with Japan, confirmed the plan in remarks to reporters at Beijing's international airport shortly before leaving for Pyongyang.

"The six-party meeting is the six-party meeting, and DPRK-Japan talks are the DPRK-Japan talks," Song, vice-director of the ministry's Asian Affairs Department, told reporters when asked about the connection of the schedules between the two sets of negotiations.

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A Japanese diplomat also said the bilateral talks will be held even if the six-party talks do not resume soon.

"I think that is the understanding," said the diplomat, who declined to be named.

Japan and North Korea agreed Sunday on a three-track format for bilateral negotiations, paving the way for stalled talks on normalizing diplomatic relations to resume as early as January.

Under the plan, the countries will establish three working groups that will separately address diplomatic normalization, North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals and the country's nuclear and missile programmes.

The six-party talks aimed at curbing the North's nuclear ambitions, meanwhile, involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The countries have been unable to set a date for the resumption of the talks after entering a recess in November.

Topping Japan's list of issues with North Korea is the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

The two sides differ over the number of Japanese who were abducted as well as the fates of some of them.

Asked about discussions to be held in the working group on the abduction issue, Song said, "Both sides have their own views. We have done much regarding the abduction issue, and there are things we want to say, too, and that will be what we will be discussing."

The Japanese diplomat said that all three working groups are likely to meet in Beijing, although a final decision on that has yet to be made.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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