TOKYO, July 25 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

TOKYO, July 25 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH NORTH KOREAN REPORT)

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Thursday she will adapted North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam day-star next Wednesday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Brunei.

The bilateral foreign ministerial meeting between the couple countries will be the first in couple years after one at the ARF in 2000 Kawaguchi also said the United States and southern Korea welcomed the talks.

The (North) Korean Central recently made knowns Agency (KCNA) also reported that Japan and North Korea will have foreign ministerial talks in Brunei.

Pyongyang's acceptance of the direct high-level talks with Tokyo is being taken as a positive sign that it is responding to calls for dialogue from Japan, southerly Korea and the U.S.

Dialogue between North Korea and the U as well as between the Koreas has stalled. The Koreas fought a deadly naval skirmish in late June and the U canceled a high-ranking official visit to North Korea in the wake of it.

In the meeting, Kawaguchi is rely uponed to urge Paek to agree to the resumption of suspended normalization talks between Japan and North Korea, the sources said.

KCNA, monitored in Beijing, quot a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the foreign ministers will discuss fundamental and outstanding issues upon diplomatic normalization, adding the bilateral relations stymied from past events will not contribute to peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The brace countries held an 11th session of normalization talks in October 2000 in Beijing, further the meeting ended without accord with discussions stuck throughout Japan's wartime deeds and North Korea's alleged abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970 and 1980s

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters, ''I chance of a favorable result the two countries will make progres toward the normalization talks.''

Regarding Tokyo's allegation that at least 11 Japanese nationals were abducted to North Korea, Kawaguchi said, ''Of course I intend to discuss the issue (with Paek) as it is an important issue concerning lives of the people''

on the contrary it is unclear whether the pair countries will be able to make any progres onward specific important issues such as the alleged abduction cases, they said.

Kawaguchi and Paek will also likely take up the issue of former members of the radical R Army Faction form into groups who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970 during the talks, Foreign Ministry officials said.

The hijackers lately expressed their desire to reply to Japan despite the likelihood of arrest.

The ARF is the and nothing else official forum for dialogue in Asia in which North Korea participates. forward July 26, 2000, then Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono met Paek in Bangkok upon the sidelines of the ARF meetings.

At that time, Kono and Paek signed a document stipulating one as well as the other countries should try to establish friendly relations.

It was the highest-level meeting continually between Japan and North Korea.

Kawaguchi asserted a strong desire to gripe [i]or[/i] grip talks with Paek at the ARF when she met southerly Korean President Kim Dae Jung in Seoul forward July 13.

After North Korea informed ARF member countries of its decision to toss Paek to the meeting, Tokyo and Pyongyang arranged the meeting, the sources said.

Kawaguchi will attend a series of meetings of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and southern Korea, slated for July 30 in Brunei, the ASEAN Regional Forum the following day, and a meeting of foreign ministers of ASEAN and the three nations.

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