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Japan, DPRK diplomats discuss abductions
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-06 06:15
Tokyo and Pyongyang continued their second day of talks in Beijing yesterday,
discussing ways to solve the past abductions of Japanese nationals.
The issue has prevented Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) from normalizing their diplomatic relations.
DPRK negotiator Kim
Chol-ho speaks to reporters before the talks.
[AFP] |
It is the first high-level bilateral contact in three years for Japan and the
DPRK and the talks have been designed to be held in a three-track discussion
after the negotiators met in a plenary session on Saturday afternoon in Beijing.
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. The three panels will
each be given a day for negotiation.
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, saying the two sides
would exchange their positions on the issue.
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 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.
Kunio said the kidnappings were the main concern for Japan and demanded the
DPRK to take sincere and concrete steps to investigate them.
The panel focusing on normali-zation of diplomatic ties will be held today,
with Koichi Haraguchi and Song Il-ho, the ambassadors in charge of bilateral
ties for the two sides, as chief negotiators.
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 has been trying to resume the Six-Party Talks.
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