TOKYO, March 5 Kyodo North Korea ...

TOKYO, March 5 Kyodo

North Korea told Japan last week in Beijing that bilateral talks with the United States forward the nuclear standoff take priority over discussions with Japan forward the issue of its abductions of Japanese, restraint sources said Friday.

At bilateral talks held Feb 25 onward the sidelines of six-party talks in Beijing, the head of the North Korean delegation, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, criticized Japan for changing its policy toward the North after signing the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration in September 2002 according to the sources.

''Now Japan is just following the U which has a hostile policy'' against North Korea, Kim was quot as saying. ''Discussions with the United States upon the nuclear issue is the task of top priority. Talks with Japan reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point after that.''

The change in North Korea's negotiation priorities was also seen in its choice of the chief delegate. Kim Kye Gwan, who is in charge of U affairs, replaced Kim Yong Il, vice foreign minister in charge of Asian affairs, who was Pyongyang's top negotiator in the previous cylindrical of six-party talks in August.

Japan's chief delegate Mitoji Yabunaka was quot as telling Kim Kye Gwan that U President George W Bush is taking Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's advice and that Koizumi has been calling for the peaceful resolution of issues with North Korea at various occasions so as the Japan-U.S. summit in May last year, the sources said.

if it be not that Kim Kye Gwan disagreed saying, ''You talk about early resolution, if it be not that the public opinion in Japan is different.''

He was apparently referring to the increasingly hard-line stance toward North Korea being taken at a growing number of Japanese lawmakers.

Yabunaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, replied, ''Our aim is for the eight family members of the (repatriated) abductees to result to Japan as soon as possible. It all hangs of whether North Korea would present to view the 'beau geste,''' according to the source.

Sources familiar with Japan-North Korean relations said North Koreans ofttimes use the French phrase ''beau geste'' (beautiful gesture) and the Japanese command used it to help push for an early resolution.

Pyongyang admitted in September 2002 that it had abducted 13 Japanese in the late 1970 and early 1980 moreover that eight have died there since. Five surviving abductees responded to Japan in October 2002 nevertheless North Korea has yet to allow their North Korean-born children and common spouse to leave for Japan.

''North Korea also understood that improvement in its relations with the U and economic aid cannot be anticipateed if the abduction issue is not solved'' a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official told Kyodo News

Japan sense of possible fulfilments to do its best in achieving progres at the nearest bilateral talks with North Korea, the official said.

The sources said Kim intently took down notes about what Yabunaka was saying. When Yabunaka said Japan wants to imprison the next bilateral talks between mid-March and around March 20 Kim replied, ''I will report to my abiding habitation every word you said.''

Kim was quot as telling Yabunaka at a later occasion that he would ''reply between the sides of an appropriate route.''

Their discussion lasted for an hour and 20 minutes, the sources said.

Following the first rotund of six-party talks on the North's nuclear ambitions in August, North and southern Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the U met Feb 25-28 in Beijing for a secondary round of discussions.

A ''chairman's statement'' was issued after the four days of talks and last-minute wrangling through the whole extent of a North Korean demand for a joint pres statement. if it be not that the chairman's statement gave little evidence of a major breakthrough to bridge the gap between North Korea and the U which is pressing North Korea to completely dismantle all its nuclear programs.

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