ID :
12255
Fri, 07/11/2008 - 22:05
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/12255
The shortlink copeid
Japan urges N. Korea to take action on abduction issue
BEIJING, July 11 Kyodo - Japan urged North Korea on Friday in Beijing to promptly make good on a promise it made last month to reinvestigate the issue of its past abductions of Japanese nationals, a Japanese government official said.
Akitaka Saiki, Japan's chief delegate to the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, also urged his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan to hold another round of bilateral talks at an early date to make progress on the abduction issue, the official said, adding there was no clear reaction from Kim.
Saiki who heads the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau was quoted as telling Kim, North Korea's vice foreign minister, that it is necessary to make progress on both Japan-North Korea bilateral ties and the denuclearization issue concurrently.
North Korea promised to reinvestigate the whereabouts of Japanese abductees in a bilateral meeting last month in Beijing although it had claimed earlier that the issue had already been settled. In response, Japan said it will lift some of its sanctions against North Korea.
Japan has said at least 17 people were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, and disputes over the emotional issue have been an obstacle to the normalization of ties between the two countries.
Akitaka Saiki, Japan's chief delegate to the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, also urged his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan to hold another round of bilateral talks at an early date to make progress on the abduction issue, the official said, adding there was no clear reaction from Kim.
Saiki who heads the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau was quoted as telling Kim, North Korea's vice foreign minister, that it is necessary to make progress on both Japan-North Korea bilateral ties and the denuclearization issue concurrently.
North Korea promised to reinvestigate the whereabouts of Japanese abductees in a bilateral meeting last month in Beijing although it had claimed earlier that the issue had already been settled. In response, Japan said it will lift some of its sanctions against North Korea.
Japan has said at least 17 people were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, and disputes over the emotional issue have been an obstacle to the normalization of ties between the two countries.
