Japan Eyes NKorea Bilateral on Normalizing Ties During US Meeting – FM

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

[Japan Eyes Meeting With N. Korea During US-N. Korea Meeting: Aso" - Kyodo headline]

Tokyo, Feb. 27 Kyodo – Japan and North Korea are expected to hold a meeting of their working group aimed at discussing normalization of ties concurrently with a separate meeting on bilateral ties between Washington and Pyongyang, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday.

“I think the Japan-North Korea working group will be held at a similar time as that of the US-North Korea working group,” Aso said in a news conference.

The six nations discussing the North Korean nuclear standoff are trying to arrange initial meetings of these two working groups in the week starting March 5 prior to other issues, conference sources said earlier.

Aso indicated that coordination with North Korea is going well, saying that North Korea has been complying with a six-party accord that calls for setting up one working group on the normalization of Japan-North Korea ties and another on US-North Korea ties “within 30 days.”

Japan and the United States agreed during the latest round of six- party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programmes, which wrapped up Feb. 13, to start bilateral talks with North Korea respectively to normalize ties.

Japan is keen on using its working group with North Korea for negotiations to resolve its long-standing issue of Pyongyang’s past abductions of Japanese nationals and other bilateral issues with the aim of normalizing ties.

The two panels are among five working groups which the six nations – China, Japan, South and North Korea, Russia and the United States – agreed to set up under the six-party talks.

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