TOKYO, May 15 Kyodo Prime Ministe...

TOKYO, May 15 Kyodo

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi upon Wednesday said negotiations are still subject to way for the departure to a third nation of five North Korean asylum inquirers who were seized by Chinese police last week at a Japanese consulate general in China.

In an interview in Tokyo with media organizations, Koizumi said, ''It is over and above in the middle of the negotiations and we should not talk about it. We do not ne to lay our cards upon the table.''

Japan and China are believed to be in the final stage of negotiations to allow the five to leave for a third nation.

The premier declined to illustration on reports that before the Shenyang incident, Japanese Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami had instructed embassy staff to discharge North Korean asylum seekers if they noteed the premises of the embassy.

''I have to behold the whole remarks. I will not rush to comment'' Koizumi said.

The North Koreans registered the Japanese Consulate General in the northeastern China city of Shenyang onward May 8, but were dragged away according to the Chinese police, who, according to the Japanese management entered the diplomatic area without permission.

Japan asseverateed to China about the incident, if it be not that China claimed the police remov the five from the consulate with permission from the Japanese side.

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