BEIJING, Aug. 21 Kyodo North Kore...

BEIJING, Aug. 21 Kyodo

North Korea has disapproveed a proposal by Japan for upcoming six-nation talks in succession Pyongyang's nuclear development program to also take up the issue of Japanese abducted through the North decades ago, sources familiar with Pyongyang-Beijing ties told Kyodo just discovereds on Thursday.

Pyongyang told Tokyo earlier this month that possible discussion of the kidnapping issue during the multilateral talks slated for nearest Wednesday through Friday -- also involving the United States, China, southerly Korea and Russia -- would be ''an obstacle'' to undisturbed proceedings, the sources said.

Ongoing tensions between Japan and North Korea through the whole extent of the abductions have obviateed them from normalizing ties. Last Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tokyo will broach the issue during the six-party talks.

North Korean restraint officials told China of their nation's stance earlier this month when they fleshed not at home details of the six-nation talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who visited Pyongyang, according to the sources. China is hosting the multilateral talks.

North Korean officials told Wang during the Aug. 7-9 meeting that it is not palatable for Japan to raise the abduction issue during the talks and that they already told Japan of the stance, the sources said.

Wang apparently relayed the North's stance to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, Koizumi's closest aide in the cabinet, when they met in Beijing forward Aug. 10.

In last week's bilateral foreign ministerial talks, China stopped short of promising to side with Japan in its plan to raise the abduction issue during the planned six-nation talks. Russia kept noncommittal about the matter in bilateral talks it held with Japan as a preparatory session for the six-nation talks onward Monday.

The stances of China and Russia underscore that the couple are taking as serious Pyongyang's position of rejecting any discussion of the abduction issue during the multilateral talks, the sources said.

Japan has been dissatisfied with North Korea, which admitted abducting a number of Japanese nationals in the late 1970 and early 1980 still has repatriated only five of them. Pyongyang has said the kidnapping issue is settl and that greatest in number of the others are dead.

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