TOKYO, Feb 28 Kyodo ---------- N ...

TOKYO, Feb 28 Kyodo

---------- N Korea to accord to Japan request for early bilateral talks

BEIJING - North Korea told Japan in succession Saturday it will respond to Tokyo's entreaty for early bilateral talks forward issues including the North's abduction of Japanese ''through an appropriate route'' Japan's chief negotiator said.

Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, said North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan rejoined in that way to his entreat to schedule the nearest bilateral meeting promptly.

---------- Japan beholds nuke-free commitment as accomplishment at talks

BEIJING - Japan's chief delegate to the six-nation talks forward North Korea's nuclear ambitions said Saturday that a major achievement at the just-ended circular of discussions was the participants' commitment for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

''The six parties involved confirmed that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was their shared goal,'' said Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. ''This is an achievement.''

---------- N Korea says abduction issue resolv nuke be chilled 1st step

BEIJING - Chief North Korean delegate Kim Kye Gwan said Saturday that the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea in the 1970 and 1980 has basically been resolv and is unrelated to the just-ended six-nation talks upon its nuclear programs.

Kim, a vice foreign minister, also reiterated the communist state's willingness to turn to ice its nuclear weapons programs as a first pace toward achieving a ''nuclear-weapon emancipated Korean Peninsula'' and denied having a uranium-enrichment program.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group