Beijming, Aug 29: North Korea's chief delegate to a conference on his country's nuclear programme expressed willingness today to solve the key sore point of the North's contentious relationship with Japan - the saga of Japanese citizens abducted decades ago. Japan and North Korea met yesterday to discuss the abductions but made little progress. In a 10-minute meeting today, North Korea appeared more conciliatory and said it wanted to solve the abductions along with other issues, according to a Japanese government statement issued in Beijing.
North Korea's head delegate, Kim Yong Il, was quoted as telling Japan's chief negotiator that the two nations had a "solid base" for relations outlined in an agreement signed last September by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the first-ever summit between the two Asian neighbours. In the summit, Kim Jong Il reversed decades of denial and admitted that North Korea had systematically kidnapped Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train Pyongyang agents in language and customs and to assume false identities.
Japan's chief delegate, Mitoji Yabunaka, told his counterpart today that Japan was also willing to carry out the Pyongyang declaration and said he hoped for further talks with North Korea. The kidnappings have been a stumbling block in a decade of sporadic negotiations between Japan and North Korea to set up diplomatic relations. Bureau Report