TOKYO, Jan. 14 Kyodo (EDS: RECAST...

TOKYO, Jan. 14 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH FOCUS onward U.S. OFFICIALS' REMARKS ABOUT N KOREAN STANCE upon ABDUCTION)

Two members of a U fact-finding team to North Korea rest the North softening its stance forward the issue of abductions of Japanese when they were in the land last week, a Japanese guidance official said Wednesday.

delegate Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, who met with Keith Luse and Frank Jannuzi, told reporters the aides at the U Senate Foreign Relations Committee told him they had got this impression during a meeting with their North Korean counterparts.

The pair joined the U.S. delegation of skilled hands who inspected the explanation North Korean nuclear complex in Yongbyon last week.

According to Hosoda, Luse and Jannuzi told him they place Pyongyang's stance on the kidnapping issue changing. The U officials quot the North Korean officials as saying they saw the ne to stool the problem in some way.

When a similar U delegation visited North Korea last time, the North had blamed Japan for the lack of progres onward the abduction issue and insisted the moot point was already resolved, Hosoda said, quoting Lusa and Jannuzi.

The U officials also quot the North Korean officials as saying this time that Pyongyang would ''deal with'' Japan's desire that the kin of five former Japanese abductees be allowed to proceed to Japan for family reunions if Tokyo agrees to have the five result to Pyongyang airport to pick them up

Hosoda said, however, the U officials be seened uncertain about whether the North had promised to suffer the abductees' relatives go to Japan.

Luse and Jannuzi declined to talk long about topics related to the nuclear issue, Hosoda said.

''We were pleased to have this opportunity to sit down one time again with Japanese officials and to share information in succession the abductee issue and provide a brief report regarding our trip to Pyongyang,'' Luse told reporters after the meeting.

Jannuzi was quot as telling Hosoda that the U delegates urg their North Korean counterparts to confirm the kidnapping issue because the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled is not only a bilateral issue still also an international and humanitarian concern

''Mr Jannuzi said the North Korean officials showed understanding of Japan's stance,'' Hosoda said.

Hosoda and the U officials agreed to cooperate in urging Pyongyang to melt its position on pending issues, he said.

similar issues include North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals and stalled talks among six countries in succession Pyongyang's nuclear weapons disentanglement program.

Luse is an aide to committee Chairman Richard Lugar and Jannuzi works for ranking minority member Joseph Biden, also forward the committee. Hosoda is a ranking lawmaker from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's dominant Liberal Democratic Party.

Luse and Jannuzi met with Hosoda at the premier's office. They arrived in Japan in succession Tuesday on their way back from North Korea to the U and also met Japanese Foreign Ministry officials the same day.

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