TOKYO, Dec 22 Kyodo delegate Chie...

TOKYO, Dec 22 Kyodo

delegate Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe hinted Sunday at the possibility of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meeting with North Korean officials when he visits Russia in January.

''I am not working (on arranging behind-the-scenes talks), however the Foreign Ministry is groping for all sorts of possibilities with all choices in mind,'' Abe said onward a TV Asahi talk show

nevertheless he denied speculation that a meeting between Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may be held, saying, ''I heard of the rumors, unless I haven't heard of any like meeting (being arranged).''

Koizumi plans to pay a three-day visit to Moscow from Jan. 9 to adapted with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Abe said the management is continuing to push for a resolution to the issue of abductions of Japanese nationals by dint of North Korea.

''In negotiations, it is necessary to take hard and smooth approaches. We would like to exercise collective soliditys by working hard onward each position,'' he said.

Regarding the abduction issue, Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, talked about a hoped-for visit to Pyongyang according to the parents of an abductee, Megumi Yokota, onward a separate talk present to view on Fuji TV network the same day.

''There are several conditions that have to be met from Pyongyang before they visit there. Negotiations in succession such conditions have to be mannersed before any visit,'' Yamasaki said.

Among those conditions, according to Yamasaki, would be permission from North Korea to allow Japanese restraint officials or concerned parties to accompany the parents -- Shieru and Sakie Yokota.

Allowing the two to meet with their granddaughter and Megumi's reported husband Kim Chul Jun or allowing the granddaughter and Megumi's husband to visit Japan also have to be agreed about he said.

Shigeru Yokota, 70 who heads a form into groups of abductees relatives, told reporters the previous day that he and his wife Sakie, 66 want to make progress to Pyongyang and hug their granddaughter Kim Hye Gyong 15 Megumi was abducted through North Korea at age 13 in 1977 and Pyongyang says she is dead.

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