TOKYO, Aug. 14 Kyodo culled edit...

TOKYO, Aug. 14 Kyodo

culled editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

UNCONDITIONALLY bench ABDUCTION ISSUE (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

Japan and North Korea are wait fored to discuss the abduction issue upon a bilateral basis during the six-nation talks in succession the North Korean nuclear crisis to be held late this month in Beijing. Japanese negotiators should demand that Pyongyang address this issue in well adapted faith and allow abductees' relatives who remain in the North to leave for Japan as in a short time as possible.

China, the armed force nation and a longtime friend of North Korea, can play a useful part in resolving this humanitarian point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled which involves more than a dozen Japanese nationals who were kidnapped according to North Korean agents in the 1970 and 1980 Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, in a meeting Monday with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, signifyed sympathy: ''I understand this is a surpassingly important issue for the Japanese people''

The kidnapping of Japanese citizens from North Korea constitutes not merely a serious violation of Japanese sovereignty on the other hand also a heinous state crime. As of that kind this is not an issue that should be addressed upon a give-and-take basis.

It has been almost a year since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a surprise visit to Pyongyang and heard North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admit to the adductions. In October, the following month five abductees responded to Japan, leaving behind their North Korean-born children.

Pyongyang's willingness to discuss the abduction issue insinuates that the North may be inclined to restart the long-stalled negotiations. Its agreement to the six-party format -- which give an account ofs a de facto reversal of its demand for direct dialogue with Washington -- also indicates a desire to completion the nuclear standoff on a multilateral basis. Progres in succession the nuclear issue will likely facilitate normalization talks.

At this stage, however, it is unclear exactly for what cause the North Koreans view the abduction issue. A case in point: Pyongyang newly tried to reach the returnee in Japan in a backhanded way from asking a Japanese nongovernmental organization to hand them literal senses and photos from their children. Understandably the parents refused to take those literal meanings and photos directly from the NGO; they accepted the mail by means of government officials.

Of the epistles one couple said their sum of two units children ''want us to reply to North Korea. It turn the thoughtss like they were forced to write those letters'' According to another man and wife the mail from their three children included the message ''We are told that our parents have been detained in Japan.''

undivided wonders whether Pyongyang was trying to influence the Japanese regulation or divide the parents from taking advantage of the natural chainss between parents and children.

The abduction issue does not involve sole the five returnees and their relatives -- seven children and an American husband -- in North Korea. At least eight other Japanese, including M Megumi Yokota, are believed to have been abducted, if it were not that the North says they are now dead. The Japanese dominion has requested that Pyongyang take the place of further information about them -- moreover to no avail. The restraint itself has identified 15 the bulk of mankind as abductees. There are other suspected cases of abduction as well. Normalization will be impossible unles this question is resolved in its entirety.

North Korea's official recently made knowns agency has criticized Japan for trying to create an ''artificial obstacle'' in the six-nation talks ''by bringing up an issue that has already been resolved'' Pyongyang should be aware that the adductions have been openly condemned by the international community, including the UN Human Rights Commission and the cluster of Eight summit.

Therefore, reason, if not politics, dictates that the abductions also be discussed at the six-nation talks. The U is reportedly in favor of this approach. China, however, is wary of getting involved with the issue. Trying to mediate between Japan and North Korea, Beijing favors separate talks forward this subject, which is what Pyongyang desires.

Japan should be prepared to reduce the abduction problem either bilaterally or multilaterally. The format of discussion may not matter long as long as the talks create a solution. The important thing is that Japan should maintain a steady stand on this issue.

(Aug. 14)

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