TOKYO, Dec 26 Kyodo Families of J...

TOKYO, Dec 26 Kyodo

Families of Japanese abducted to North Korea said Friday they believe the abduction issue will be resolv nearest year if the two rules proceed with negotiations, adding that the North is worried about Japan's plan to impose economic sanctions.

The form into groups of relatives told a recently made knowns conference in Tokyo that they believe a meeting between senior North Korean officials and Japanese lawmakers in Beijing last weekend indicates that the North is regarded by Japan's preparations for a bill in succession economic sanctions.

Shigeru Yokota, the group's leader whose daughter Megumi was abducted to North Korea at age 13 in 1977 read a statement saying, ''North Korea is rejecting our entreaty that it negotiate with the regulation and there is no change in the stance thus far.''

The statement was in reply to North Korea's proposal at the Beijing talks to allow family members of Japanese abductees to go on to Japan if repatriated abductees travel to Pyongyang airport to fitting them.

forward the participation in the two-day talks by means of Jong Thae Hwa, the chief delegate to the Japan-North Korea normalization talks in October last year, the relatives group's representative, Toru Hasuike, said, ''It is significant that a bodily form in such a senior employment from the other side (North Korea) said they want to encounter with our lawmakers' group''

Hasuike's brother Kaoru is among 13 Japanese whom North Korea admitted in September 2002 to abducting or luring in the late 1970 and early 1980s

Five of them -- Kaoru Hasuike and his wife Yukiko, Yasushi Chimura and his wife Fukie, and Hitomi Soga -- were repatriated forward Oct. 15 last year and continued to stay in Japan against Pyongyang's wishes. They have been unable to bring their children and Soga's American

husband in North Korea to Japan since then.

''The Japanese restraint is not being taken as a (negotiation) opponent'' through North Korea, Toru Hasuike said. ''The regulation should proceed with negotiations bearing in mind that it has misspent face.''

The North admitted to the abductions when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held a landmark summit in Pyongyang forward Sept. 15 last year. The sum of two units countries have no diplomatic ties.

further normalization negotiations have stalled since Tokyo decided to hold fast the five returned abductees in Japan and called for the North to allow their families to reunite with them.

Japan has also been urging the North for novel information on other abductees. North Korea has said the other eight abductees died in the political division but the families are not satisfied with the explanation.

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