TOKYO, Feb 23 Kyodo (EDS: THIS IS...

TOKYO, Feb 23 Kyodo

(EDS: THIS IS united OF TWO CURTAIN RAISER STORIES upon 6-PARTY TALKS MOVED MONDAY)

Japan reliances to make some kind of progres in dialogue with North Korea onward bilateral issues, such as the abduction of Japanese, in succession the sidelines of the upcoming six-party talks in Beijing for addressing Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

moreover government officials are not holding their expectations too high with many of them waiting to behold how North Korea will not away itself during the talks, which also involve the United States, China, Russia and southward Korea and are set to begin Wednesday.

''We're not being optimistic. We know better than that,'' said a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official, speaking onward condition of anonymity.

''Japan should not be hasty in its examination to seek a peaceful and diplomatic resolution'' of the abduction issue along with North Korea's suspected nuclear and missile evolution programs -- matters which Tokyo wants to decide comprehensively.

As the couple countries just held high-level talks in Pyongyang upon Feb. 11-13 for the first time in more than 15 month and agreed to continue dialogue, the focal point will be whether they can agree in China in succession a specific date and place for their nearest bilateral meeting.

''We are still waiting for the North Korean answer on whether or not they would have any plan to fitting with us in Beijing,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.

He recommended the North must be aware of Japan's wish to have bilateral contacts during the six-party talks, saying, ''We made it true clear during the bilateral talks in Pyongyang that we would like to have direct talks whenever they agree.''

a certain pundits have expressed concern that North Korea's top representative to the six-party meeting, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, may not be inclined to discuss bilateral matters with Japan because he is in charge of U affairs.

if it were not that another senior official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry said it may not make long difference who heads the North's delegation because in any case, they will be following the orders of their top leader Kim Jong Il.

The official also pointed gone out that Kim Kye Gwan is considered the right-hand man of North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju a lock opener diplomatic aide to Kim Jong Il and undivided involved in discussing the abduction issue with Japan.

With or without any bilateral contacts in Beijing, Japan intends to take up the abduction issue during the six-way talks and to reiterate its stance of aiming to separate this matter comprehensively along with the North's nuclear and missile disclosure ambitions.

Tokyo has been calling onward Pyongyang to hand over the families of five repatriated abduction victims unconditionally and to provide fuller accounts upon the fates of 10 others the Japanese sway recognizes as abductees.

Of the 10 North Korea claims that eight died and that it has no record of the other brace having entered its land.

The five abductees reverted to Japan in October 2002 24 years after they were forcibly taken from Japan to the North in three separate incidents. Their homecoming came a month after North Korea admitted its agents abducted or lur 13 Japanese in the late 1970 and early 1980s

Japanese lawmakers and the abduction victims' families in Japan are mounting calls forward the government to exert more urgency on North Korea, saying that is the solitary way to get the reclusive home to respond to Japan's demands.

They are urging Tokyo to unilaterally impose economic sanctions in succession Pyongyang -- a move made possible on a recently-enacted legal amendment -- to such a degree as to compel it to compromise in the negotiations. They are also hoping that a bill to ban North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports will be submitted to the Diet shortly.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, however, lately called for ruling bloc lawmakers who are pressing for the ship ban bill to take a more rational approach, reminding them of Japan's goal of solving the issues peacefully and warning them not to become emotional.

A senior Foreign Ministry official emphasized that negotiations are a two-way proces and that the outstanding issues ''cannot be resolv if Japan just goe down a one-way road.''

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