TOKYO, race 2 Kyodo (EDS: RECAST...

TOKYO, race 2 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH INFO OF GOV'T SOURCES)

Japan decided Monday to hale out North Korea on holding a senior working-level meeting, possibly according to mid-September, to pave the way for an early visit to Japan at the families of the five Japanese abducted in 1978 and repatriated last October, command sources said.

Tokyo will approach Pyongyang presently through diplomatic channels as the pair sides reached an agreement Friday in Beijing to continue talks forward the abduction and other pending bilateral issues, they said.

Japan wishes to take advantage of the turnaround in North Korea's position that enabled Friday's agreement to be realized before the first anniversary of the tribe 17 summit between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the sources said.

Earlier Monday, Mitoji Yabunaka, chief of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, said Tokyo will approach North Korea in a matter of weeks to start talks aimed at resolving the issue of the kidnapping of Japanese nationals in the 1970 and 1980 a arrange of abductees' relatives said.

Japan may also consider resuming the suspended talks aimed at forging diplomatic ties with North Korea if it allows the family members of the five repatriated abductees to get to to Japan, Yabunaka was quot as telling the group

The annotations indicate that Japan may endeavor to gain to resume normalization talks before the abduction issue is resolved

on the contrary Yabunaka also reiterated Tokyo's position of not normalizing ties with Pyongyang without resolving the abduction issue, cluster members said.

Separately, Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi told a pres meeting for consultation Monday that Japan will try to find talks on the abduction issue at an early stage with North Korea, although the sum of two units sides have still to agree upon a date for the talks.

''At this avail we cannot tell the specific timing of the bilateral talks,'' Takeuchi said. ''We have already transported our position, and we waiting under the possibility of fulfilment to realize the talks as easily as possible.''

During bilateral contacts in Beijing last week, Yabunaka, who headed the Japanese delegation, urg North Korea to toss to Japan the eight family members of the five repatriated abductees and to clarify information forward the 10 other people forward Tokyo's list of abductees.

Japan has argued it will normalize diplomatic ties with North Korea solely after the two countries dissolve the abduction issue and that it will provide economic assistance to the North after the normalization. The brace sides have not had diplomatic ties since North Korea was established after World War II.

The Japanese side has also at handed a list of 150 questions above the abductions, and held that resolving the issue means family reunions in Japan for the five -- Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike, Yasushi and Fukie Chimura and Hitomi Soga -- plus answers to all the questions including those in succession the 10 missing.

The relatives said they have in addition to decide whether the cluster would accept the plan onward normalization talks indicated by Yabunaka, yet one supporter expressed his personal opposition to the idea.

They also urg the management not to be satisfied with solely the possible family reunions involving the five, moreover in general terms welcomed the way Tokyo stuck to its position during the Beijing talks with Pyongyang.

Friday's agreement came a day after the officials conclusioned their talks in a stalemate with one as well as the other sides reiterating their basic positions in succession the abductions.

The pair countries held the talks in succession the sidelines of six-nation talks to defuse tensions through the whole extent of North Korea's nuclear ambitions held in Beijing from last Wednesday to Friday.

The talks were the first between Japan and North Korea since last October, when negotiators of the pair countries met in Malaysia.

As for the six-way talks, which also involve China, southward Korea, Russia and the United States, Takeuchi said they were ''a suitable start'' and that it is important to continue the dialogue.

The six nations reached a six-point agreement in their three-day talks, including an agreement to continue dialogue toward the belonging to all objective of achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, although they failed to agree onward a date and venue for the nearest round.

The six countries also shared a determination to interpret the crisis peacefully from one side dialogue and address Pyongyang's security concerns

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