BEIJING, May 10 Kyodo Settling th...

BEIJING, May 10 Kyodo

Settling the issues of North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970 and 1980 and its nuclear arms program will not lead to an improvement in bilateral relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo, North Korea's official newspaper Minju Joson reported Saturday.

The report indicates Pyongyang is aware of notes Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made Thursday when he met five Japanese abductees for the first time since they recured home in October last year.

''The Japanese high-ranking politicians are busy with shuttle diplomacy, peddling the DPRK's ''nuclear issue'' and ''the issue of abduction'' overseas in a bid to internationalize them,'' the paper said in a commentary broadcast according to the official (North) Korean Central recents Agency. DPRK is an abbreviation for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

''Japan allow loose sophism that the Japan-DPRK relations would be normalized merely after these issues are settl This is nothing yet a foolish attempt to improve the unfavorable position in which it finds itself as regards the issue of bilateral relations,'' it said.

The commentary said the ''core issue'' in improving bilateral relations is for Japan to be sorry for the pain and suffering it inflicted forward the Korean people and compensate for its 1910-1945 colonial government of the Korean Peninsula.

''Bilateral relations still remain unsettl because of this issue,'' the report said.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo recently made knowns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group