TOKYO, Oct 4 Kyodo The Foreign Mi...

TOKYO, Oct 4 Kyodo

The Foreign Ministry onward Friday promised lawmakers supporting families of Japanese abducted to North Korea to expect into media reports that North Korea had not past nor futureed a gift of matsutake mushrooms to Japan during last month's summit talks.

The nonpartisan cluster of lawmakers, holding a plenary meeting at a Diet building, took up reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il gave a large amount of the fall delicacy to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi upon the occasion of their race 17 meeting in Pyongyang.

''For whom was the gift meant, and what was its purpose? by what mode are you going to deal with it?'' common of the lawmakers asked Akitaka Saiki, delegate director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.

Saiki, who l a new government mission to the North Korean capital to investigate facts surrounding the abduction cases which took place in the 1970 and 1980 said the ministry will examine into the matter.

Prior to the landmark summit talks, the first between the top leaders of Japan and North Korea, Japanese officials said Koizumi was not planning to bring any gifts for Kim as Tokyo wanted to stick to business and had also asked Pyongyang to restrain any ceremonials.

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