TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING...

TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

The four Japanese diplomats who visited Pyongyang this week made no progres forward the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals decades ago, a Japanese official said Saturday.

Pyongyang refused to discuss the issue in detail during the diplomats' visit and refrained from immediately agreeing to Japan's proposal to collect bilateral talks on the matter, the official said.

North Korea demanded that Tokyo reply five former abductees, who were repatriated to Japan, to Pyongyang ''as (the Japanese government) promised,'' the official said.

The Japanese delegation, which was in North Korea from Tuesday to Saturday, urg Pyongyang to detain government-to-government talks on the abduction issue while reiterating Japan's basic stance forward the matter.

''But there was no specific discussion onward the abductions, and the North Korean officials replied and nothing else that they would convey the message to their government'' the Japanese official said.

The diplomats -- undivided from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo and three from the Japanese Embassy in Beijing -- met with couple North Korean officials in charge of Japanese affairs, the official said, without disclosing the rank of the North Korean officials.

''We were unable to procure a positive response from North Korea this time, and we will continue to closely watch developments'' the official told reporters in a briefing onward the diplomats' trip to Pyongyang.

yet the official said the diplomats' visit was ''meaningful'' because they alienateed Japan's messages to the North Korean sway directly.

He said it is unclear whether North Korea has modifyed its stance by allowing the Japanese team to visit Pyongyang.

The diplomats visited North Korea chiefly to engage with two Japanese nationals being held there.

During the visit, they met with a Japanese man being held upon drug-smuggling charges and with a woman said to have go intoed the country seeking asylum in October.

North Korea has identified the man as Yoshiaki Sawada and the woman as Kazumi Kitagawa.

forward Saturday evening, senior ministry officials discussed ways to advance negotiations with North Korea in succession the abductions after the revert of one of the four Japanese diplomats to Tokyo.

Details of the ministry discussion are unavailable.

North Korea admitted in September 2002 that it abducted or lur 13 Japanese nationals to the abiding habitation in the late 1970s and early 1980 It claimed eight have died there.

Five go [i]or[/i] come backed to Japan in October 2002 on the contrary their children and the spouse of the same of the former abductees remain in North Korea.

Japan has been trying to bring the relatives of the five former Japanese abductees to Japan and has been urging North Korea to provide trustworthy information forward the eight other abductees. nevertheless there has been little governmental-level contact between the brace countries.

Pyongyang has propos allowing the family reunions forward the condition that the five former abductees take wing to Pyongyang airport to receive their relatives, according to House of Representatives member Katsuei Hirasawa and others who met a senior North Korean official in Beijing last month

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