TOKYO, family 1 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

TOKYO, family 1 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH YABUNAKA'S REMARKS)

Japan may 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 arise to Japan, a Japanese diplomat in charge of the issue was quot Monday as telling the abductees' relatives.

Mitoji Yabunaka, chief of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, also 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 the relatives said.

The make notess indicate that Japan may follow to resume normalization talks before the abduction issue is resolved

however Yabunaka also reiterated Tokyo's position of not normalizing ties with Pyongyang without resolving the abduction, they said.

A clump of relatives of abduction victims met Yabunaka following Friday's agreement between senior Japanese and North Korean officials to continue talks onward the abduction and other issues based in succession a joint declaration last September to dissolve outstanding problems between the sum of two units countries.

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

''At this trice we cannot tell the specific timing of the bilateral talks,'' Takeuchi said. ''We have already carryed our stance, and we reliance to realize the talks as pretty soon as possible.''

During bilateral contacts in Beijing last week, Yabunaka, who headed the Japanese delegation, urg North Korea to send forth to Japan the eight family members of the five who were abducted in 1978 and repatriated last October and to clarify information forward the 10 other family on Tokyo's list of abductees.

Japan has argued it will normalize diplomatic ties with North Korea solely after the two countries disentangle the abduction issue and that it will provide economic assistance to the North after the normalization. The sum of two units sides have never had diplomatic ties since North Korea was established after World War II.

The Japanese side has also not awayed a list of 150 questions athwart 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 forward the 10 missing.

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

They also urg the command not to be satisfied with merely the possible family reunions involving the five, further 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 fall of the curtained their talks in a stalemate with one as well as the other sides reiterating their basic positions upon the abductions.

The sum of two units 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 couple countries met in Malaysia.

As for the six-way talks, which also involve China, toward the south Korea, Russia and the United States, Takeuchi said they were ''a proper 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 often met with objective of achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, although they failed to agree in succession a date and venue for the nearest round.

The six countries also shared a determination to explain the crisis peacefully [i]or[/i] part of to the other dialogue and address Pyongyang's security concerns

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