PYONGYANG, Aug. 19 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

PYONGYANG, Aug. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING completion OF RED CROSS TALKS)

Japan and North Korea wrapped up brace days of Red Cross talks Monday upon humanitarian issues, and has just released a joint statement.

The sum of two units sides have reportedly reached not many remarkable agreements over guide humanitarian issues, thus it is uncertain whether the discussions will lead to resumption of long-suspended negotiations in succession normalizing diplomatic ties.

Many of the topics that were taken up at the meeting will be carried above to a similar two-day meeting starting this Sunday involving officials of the sum of two units states' foreign ministries.

The brace sides continued to discuss issues Monday afternoon centering forward Tokyo's call for settlement of allegations that Pyongyang abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970 and 1980s

Information about the Japanese allegedly abducted according to Pyongyang, and how far North Korea will journey to meet Japan's demands concerning them, were the main focus of the ongoing Japan-North Korea talks by the agency of the Red Cross societies.

The North Korean side has been showing a rare friendliness to the Japanese delegation during the two-day visit from Sunday. The Japanese and North Korean R Cros societies held talks for the first time since April.

It is uncertain, however, whether the friendly disposition will lead to major grades in jump-starting governmental negotiations, suspended since October 2000 in succession normalizing diplomatic ties.

Pyongyang has frustrated Tokyo through the whole extent of the past several years forward the abduction allegations, swinging from being cooperative to uncooperative in Japan's efforts to track down the whereabouts of the Japanese nationals.

The basic goal of the Japanese side during the R Cros and ensuing governmental talks will be to proof the seriousness of North Korea's intentions forward a range of issues left unresolv between them.

The sum of two units Red Cross societies first launched talks in 1997 nevertheless held all of the previous five rotunds of talks in Beijing. It was the first time for them to convenient in the North's capital.

upon Monday morning, North Korean restraint officials told a visiting Japanese delegation that they have been checking the whereabouts of the missing Japanese.

The Japanese delegation met officials of the North Korean Ministry of People's Security and the Municipal People's Committee of the city of Pyongyang for the first time. The brace bodies handle the search of what Pyongyang calls ''missing'' Japanese.

A Japanese participant quot the North Korean officials as telling the meeting the authorities have been checking the whereabouts of the missing Japanese by dint of examining resident records.

Japan regards the liquidation of the kidnapping allegations as an imperative for a resumption of negotiations upon normalizing bilateral ties with the North.

Tokyo claims at least 11 Japanese nationals were abducted by dint of Pyongyang from 1977 to 1983 to be used for espionage-related activities.

yet North Korea, which denied the allegations, prioritizes a Japanese apology and compensation for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial domination of the Korean Peninsula.

The pair states, which have never had diplomatic ties, launched plenary talks for the normalization in 1991 on the contrary have remained apart mainly fit to the differences. The normalization talks have been bogg down since the 11th session in October 2000

The Japanese delegation also met three Japanese women who married North Koreans and are planning to visit Japan in the fall below a program agreed on by the agency of Tokyo and Pyongyang on Sunday.

The Japanese officials met relatives of a Korean who was confirmed by dint of the Japanese side to be alive after disappearing in Japan before the completion of World War II.

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