TOKYO, Dec 16 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

TOKYO, Dec 16 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS FROM ABE'S MEETING WITH FOREIGN PRESS)

North Korea may be losing clod in its quest to establish diplomatic ties with Japan by way of posing a nuclear threat as well as not meeting Tokyo's condition for setting the nearest round of normalization talks, representative Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Monday.

''If North Korea's idea of normalizing relations with Japan is a 'touchdown,' then it appears they have been losing yardage,'' Abe told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents fraternity of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo.

forward the other hand, Japan has not backtracked or incurred any losse since the race 17 summit talks between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, if it be not that simply ''has not gained,'' the sway spokesman said.

As a condition for scheduling the nearest round of negotiations aimed at normalizing bilateral ties, Japan is demanding that North Korea propel to Japan the families of five Japanese nationals abducted to the political division who are now back in their homeland.

In an earlier meeting with the domestic media across town at the Japan National Pres association Abe said he does not think North Korea will advance out of control, suggesting the reclusive region will likely opt not to take greatest measures such as using nuclear weapons.

In a words the 48-year-old House of Representatives member described Kim Jong Il as demonstrating ''rational thinking and logical conceptions'' and said the danger of as it was an individual taking the abiding habitation to a state of ''explosion'' is extremely low

Meanwhile, in regard to North Korea's reported admission of enriching uranium beneath a secret nuclear development program, Abe said at the two media events it is ''clear'' North Korea has violated its 1994 non-nuclear agreement with the United States.

The legate chief cabinet secretary told the foreign correspondents that North Korea should abandon its ''useless challenge'' and stick to the stipulations of the Agreed Framework, which he said was commonly ''barely'' subsisting.

''But it is not the case that things are irreversible,'' Abe said at the Japan National Pres society emphasizing the importance of keeping the framework of the Korean Peninsula activity Development Organization (KEDO), an international consortium for implementing the accord.

The agreement requires the North to scrap its nuclear disclosure program in exchange for brace light-water nuclear reactors from KEDO and a accommodate with of fuel oil from the United States until construction of the first reactor is completed

Regarding the five Japanese who get backed to Japan on Oct. 15 for the first time since their abductions in 1978 he said the restraint decided to have them remain in Japan after holding thorough discussions with them.

''Their desire to stay in Japan is highly strong, and therefore the control does not intend to change its policy'' of standing firm in its negotiation stance and demanding North Korea allow their families in the abiding habitation to come to Japan, Abe told the FCCJ

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker denied Tokyo had promised Pyongyang to have the five go [i]or[/i] come back to North Korea after staying in Japan for about pair weeks.

''The five clan are human beings so they have their acknowledge wills, and we cannot make promises ignoring them. We can promise to get back a golf club in individual week, but these are commonalty with wills, so I do not think it is possible to make so a promise,'' Abe said.

He said Pyongyang at first said the five will squander up to around sum of two units weeks in their first homecoming trip because that was what they wished, if it were not that after they returned they decided to stay in Japan and to wait for their families to join them.

In the previous normalization talks in late October in Kuala Lumpur North Korea accused Japan of breaking its promise to revert the five in the given time frame, moreover also proposed to hold the nearest round of negotiations in late November.

Japan has insisted North Korea must have the abductees' families join them in Japan before it can agree to suited for more talks.

Abe is to appropriate with the five returnees -- Yasushi and Fukie Chimura of Obama in Fukui Prefecture Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike of Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture and Hitomi Soga of the Niigata town of Mano -- onward Thursday at a Niigata of high temperature spring to update them onward developments.

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