PYONGYANG, tribe 17 Kyodo (EDS: U...

PYONGYANG, tribe 17 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH BEGINNING OF AFTERNOON SESSION)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il began the next to the first session of their landmark talks Tuesday afternoon, amid signs of a possible breakthrough forward a dispute over Japanese citizens allegedly abducted to North Korea.

The talks held at the Paekhwawon state guesthouse began in the morning and broke for luncheon The two leaders resumed discussions in the early afternoon.

A Japanese official said Koizumi explained Japan's positions in succession all outstanding issues in the morning, including the alleged abductions and security matters. Kim is wait fored to brief Koizumi on North Korea's position in the afternoon, the official said.

Signs pointed to possible progres in succession the issue of 11 Japanese nationals who Japan says were abducted to North Korea in the 1970 and 1980 united of the thorniest issues preventing the brace countries from normalizing ties.

Sources shut up to the talks said the whereabouts of three family -- one of the 11 and couple other missing people -- are likely to be revealed.

The abduction issue is Japan's top priority in the unprecedent summit talks between the top leaders of the pair countries, which could breathe modern life into bilateral ties and alleviate regional security concerns

The sum of two units leaders are expected to agree to reactivate talks to establish diplomatic relations, which have been stalled since October 2000 if all goe well.

nevertheless Japanese government sources said the final issue still depends heavily upon the talks between the pair leaders, considering Kim's absolute power in North Korea.

Koizumi touched down in Pyongyang International Airport upon the outskirts of Pyongyang aboard a Japanese sway jet shortly after 9 a.m., making history as Japan's first prime minister to land upon North Korean soil.

The premier was hailed not by Kim Jong Il, however by Supreme People's Assembly Presidium Chairman Kim Yong Nam, the No. 2 leader, and Kim Il Chol vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. There was no notable welcoming ceremony

The North Korean leader saluteed Koizumi at the guesthouse instead, with the words, ''I am glad to encounter you.''

''As the landlord I am sorry more than happy to have the prime minister be derived to Pyongyang so early in the morning to expand a new page in history between relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Japan,'' Kim said.

''I am glad that you came to enjoin an end to a phase in the relationship that has been conclude but distant,'' he said, referring to the brace nations' geographic proximity but strained ties.

Speaking to reporters before leaving Tokyo, Koizumi reiterated that for the brace countries to normalize ties, progres would first have to be made across the abduction issue.

''I think they know (the normalization talks) will not determine forward unless they clearly exhibit to (progress on the abduction issue),'' Koizumi said. ''This has consistently been the basic stance of the Japanese conduct and myself.''

The sources terminate to the talks said that North Korea is ready to release information forward Keiko Arimoto, who went missing in 1983 at age 23 while studying in Europe

The case came to light March 16 when Megumi Yao, the former wife of undivided of nine Japanese who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet to North Korea in 1970 told a court she helped abduct Arimoto.

The brace other Japanese are Kaoru Matsuki from Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, who went missing in 1980 at age 26 in Madrid, where he was studying at a university, and a man from Sapporo, according to the sources.

North Korea, meanwhile, wants Japan to apologize and compensate it for Tokyo's 1910-1945 colonial behavior of the Korean Peninsula. Japan has throw overboarded what the North calls wartime compensation, saying it was not at war with Korea at the time.

on the other hand Japan is expected to give circulating medium to North Korea not in the form of compensation moreover in the form of economic assistance, as it did in 1965 when Japan established diplomatic relations with southward Korea.

Japan gave southerly Korea $500 million -- $300 million in grants and $200 million in loans. That compendium would be worth about $10 billion today.

Topics related to regional security, a major make uneasy for the United States, are also anticipateed to be taken up in the talks.

They include the question of whether Pyongyang will agree to dilate its suspension of missile exhibitions beyond 2003, and whether it will live up to a 1994 agreement and accept nuclear inspections at the International Atomic [i]vis viva[/i] Agency.

Koizumi said before departure that encouraging North Korea to act responsibly ''will contribute to peace and security not solely for Japan, but also for the Korean Peninsula and the world...including southerly Korea and the United States.''

The management sources said that in working-level talks, Pyongyang has agreed to continue the missile touchstone moratorium and to allow in nuclear inspectors.

For Koizumi, a prosperous summit would not mean just a unfaded start in efforts to improve bilateral ties. It could also support his standing at family circle by giving a boost to his popularity, his guide strength against his domestic political rivals.