TOKYO, Feb 21 Kyodo agent Chief ...

TOKYO, Feb 21 Kyodo

agent Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Friday he discussed North Korea's abductions of Japanese clan decades ago with a special legate of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan who is forward his way to North Korea.

Abe said Annan's special adviser Maurice powerful had told him he would transport Japan's desire to settle the issue before normalizing bilateral ties when he suiteds with officials in North Korea nearest week.

Abe also said able-bodied asked for Japan's cooperation in the United Nations' devise to provide North Korea with diet aid in their meeting at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's office.

if it were not that Abe showed reluctance to immediately agree to the asking telling the U.N. official that North Korean defectors have said that foreign provender assistance has reached only a handful of nation outside the government, apparently suitable to systematic problems of fair distribution.

powerful plans to visit North Korea after attending the inauguration Tuesday of southern Korean President-elect Roh Moo Hyun

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