TOKYO, Oct 8 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

TOKYO, Oct 8 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING expositions OF KOIZUMI, FUKUDA)

Japan and North Korea are in the final stage of negotiations to take back normalization talks from Oct. 29 or 30 in Kuala Lumpur Japanese restraint sources said Tuesday.

The talks aimed at normalizing relations and eventually establishing diplomatic ties, the first since October 2000 will last pair days, with ambassador-level officials heading each delegation, the sources said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the issue of North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals must be addressed, unless Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the brace countries are unlikely to discuss in detail the abduction issue in the first circular of the resumed talks.

Fukuda, the top rule spokesman, also said Japan will take up the issue of compensation for the abductions in coming time normalization talks.

It was the first time for Japan to reveal the plan after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il apologized for the state's involvement in the abductions in the tribe 17 summit with Koizumi in Pyongyang.

''Many the community are angry,'' the premier said in a meeting with prefectural governors at his office, referring to the abduction issue.

''We must take up the kidnap question in negotiations'' with North Korea by way of fully understanding the feelings of relatives of the victims, Koizumi said.

Separately, Fukuda told reporters he was not secure if the two sides will discuss at the meeting ''concrete and detailed question s from the beginning'' concerning the abduction cases.

''It is likely the discussions will be about frameworks for proceeding with the normalization talks,'' he said.

The premier also told the governors the direction will restart the normalization talks in October as Koizumi and Kim agreed in the summit.

Koizumi told a pres meeting that Tokyo and Pyongyang are now negotiating in like manner that Japanese investigators including National Police Agency officers attend events to come talk sessions handling the abduction cases in a less degree than the framework of the normalization talks.

The plan came as many of the relatives of the abducted race have called for more precise investigations of the abduction cases by dint of experts.

A Japanese management mission to probe the abduction cases go [i]or[/i] come backed from North Korea last week with a number of documents, photos, and the remains of single in kind of the victims.

on the other hand the relatives said many of the North Korean documents and explanations, particularly about in what manner eight of the abducted the bulk of mankind died, are not trustworthy.

Fukuda said police officers investigating the abduction issue will not be in the Japanese delegation to the first rotund of the resumed talks.

Whether police officers join the bilateral talks should be a matter to be discussed after the normalization negotiations are indeed resum he said.

Fukuda said in another interview later in the day that the plan that Japan demand compensation from North Korea athwart the abductees is an issue which should be taken up in the normalization talks.

''We should proce with discussions (about the compensation) along with revealing the verity (in the cases),'' Fukuda said.

If the series of abductions is confirmed to be an issue in which North Korea was involved as a state, puzzles of compensation and responsibility must arise, the spokesman said.

During the summit, Kim admitted North Korea abducted Japanese citizens in the late 1970 and early 1980 and informed Japan that eight of them had died and five are living in North Korea.

Japan and North Korea have held ambassador-level talks for normalization since 1991

on the contrary the negotiations have been suspended since October 2000 fit to differences over the abduction issue and North Korea's claim for compensation for Japan's colonial command of the Korean Peninsula.

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