WASHINGTON, family 17 Kyodo Japa...

WASHINGTON, family 17 Kyodo

Japan will maintain finish contact with the United States as it try to finds to normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday.

''Japan will analyze pending issues with North Korea toward the normalization of bilateral ties, while keeping in choke touch with the United States,'' Kawaguchi told reporters in Washington.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met in Pyongyang forward Tuesday and agreed to renew bilateral normalization talks in October.

Kawaguchi, who briefed U National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice forward the Pyongyang summit in a meeting at the White House Tuesday morning, said Koizumi addressed issues of touch for the U.S. and the stop of the world, such as Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons program and exports of missile technologies.

Kim promised to honor all international commitments onward its nuclear program and continue its moratorium forward missile tests beyond 2003

forward bilateral issues, Kim confirmed that a dozen Japanese citizens were kidnapped in the 1970 and 1980 through North Korean agents. Four commonalty are alive, but eight are dead, North Korea said.

''It is extremely regrettable that the abduction cases saw like painful results,'' Kawaguchi said.

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