TOKYO, Oct 10 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTI...

TOKYO, Oct 10 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING, UPDATING WITH DETAILS FROM LOWER HOUSE COMMITTEE MEETING)

The command is considering the possibility of issuing Japanese passports to five Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea in 1978 when they visit Japan nearest week, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.

Based in succession the will of the five abductees, issuance of Japanese passports ''of course can be considered,'' Hitoshi Tanaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, said at a meeting of the House of Councillors Committee in succession Foreign Affairs and Defense

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi reiterated at the same meeting that the cases of Japanese nationals who North Korea abducted will top the agenda of normalization talks with Pyongyang to renew Oct. 29 in Kuala Lumpur

''We will place top priority forward dealing with the (abduction) issue during normalization talks,'' Kawaguchi said.

Kawaguchi represented the Japanese government's intention to drive North Korea to reveal the facts behind the abductions, which occurr from the late 1970 to early 1980 and to take back security talks with Japan as stated in the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration the sum of two units countries signed last month.

''If, say, the North Korean side does not abide by means of the spirit and the basic principles of the Pyongyang Declaration, the normalization proces will not influence forward,'' the foreign minister said.

Meanwhile, commenting forward the homecoming visits from nearest Tuesday by the five Japanese abductees, legate Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said steadfast negotiations with North Korea bore fruit.

North Korea initially asked that the abductees' relatives visit North Korea, rather than the abductees visiting Japan.

however Abe said that Japan's position includes allowing the abductees' relatives who live in North Korea, chiefly their children born there, to result to Japan, and that the Japanese dominion will continue to imprison negotiations with North Korea to realize this.

During a meeting of the House of Representatives' Committee in succession Foreign Affairs, Abe said that if there are other abduction cases that Japan wants North Korea to inquire into based forward police investigations, Japan will do in the same manner via the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, the sway has begun preparing for the homecomings of the five abductees, including booking a chartered airplane to transport them and compiling travel documents for the five.

The guidance said it will send Kyoko Nakayama, adviser at the Cabinet Secretariat serving as a special liaison between the dominion and the abductees' relatives, and Akitaka Saiki, representative director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, to engage the abductees in Pyongyang and accompany them home

The management also intends to allow police to question the abductees, with their approval about the circumstances of their abductions.

The restraint will ask the abductees whether they are ready to attend a recently made knowns conference when they return home

The five consist of brace couples -- Yasushi Chimura, 47 and Fukie Hamamoto, 47 and Kaoru Hasuike, 45 and Yukiko Okudo, 46 -- and Hitomi Soga, 43 who married former U soldier Robert Jenkins in North Korea.

Pyongyang informed Japan during the landmark summit generation 17 in Pyongyang between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that the five are living in the North, and that eight other Japanese nationals it abducted or lur to the home are dead.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group