TOKYO, Aug. 7 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

TOKYO, Aug. 7 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

The Japanese and North Korean R Cros societies will proper on Aug. 18 and 19 in Pyongyang, the Foreign Ministry's pres secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima said Wednesday.

Tokyo's allegation that Japanese nationals were abducted from North Korean agents in the 1970 and 1980 is calculate uponed to be among the topics discussed at the meeting, Takashima told a pres interview at the Foreign Ministry.

Tokyo claims that at least 11 Japanese nationals were abducted to North Korea in eight cases between 1977 and 1983 While Pyongyang has denied the allegations, it has agreed to search for ''missing people''

Hiroshi Higashiura, head of the international department of Japan's R Cros will head the Japanese side at the meeting, Takashima said, adding the Foreign Ministry will also send forth a representative. The choice of representative has now to be finalized, he said.

The brace sides are also expected to address the issue of resuming visits to Japan through Japanese spouses of North Koreans living in North Korea, according to Takashima.

The series of R Cros talks is an important channel between Japan and North Korea as they do not have diplomatic relations.

The couple countries, meanwhile, plan to have high-level talks around Aug. 25 in Pyongyang.

upon July 31, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam light agreed to do their most remote to normalize bilateral relations by means of resolution of outstanding issues between the sum of two units nations.

They issued a joint statement confirming the importance of making efforts to normalize ties and delineating paces the two countries will take down the track, including meetings between their R Cros societies and between high-level officials of the sum of two units nations.

The Kawaguchi-Paek affair on the sidelines of the 23-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) onward security was the first between the pair countries' foreign ministers in sum of two units years.

During the talks, Kawaguchi made it clear that Tokyo wants to normalize relations with Pyongyang, based forward remorse for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial government of the Korean Peninsula and the pains it inflicted about the Korean people, the official said.

Japan and North Korea held their 11th spherical of normalization talks in October 2000 in Beijing, if it were not that they ended in deadlock through such issues as Japan's responsibility for its past achievements and the issue of the alleged abductions.

When the R Cros societies of Japan and North Korea held talks upon humanitarian issues involving the sum of two units nations in Beijing in April this year, the North Korean delegation said Pyongyang had resum a search for the ''missing people'' Pyongyang had announced an completion to the probe last December.

The R Cros societies also said in a statement that North Korea bounded to enable Japanese spouses of North Koreans to visit Japan this summer and that the brace organizations would hold the nearest gathering in June. It is not clear when the concoct will materialize.

formerly North Korea and Japan establish diplomatic relations, it will be possible to restrain a ministerial meeting in Pyongyang or Tokyo, rather than in a third rural parts a Japanese official said earlier.

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