TOKYO, Feb 10 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTI...

TOKYO, Feb 10 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH TOKYO REACTIONS TO RODONG SINMUN ARTICLE)

Japan in succession Tuesday downplayed the sharp reactions from North Korea to parliament's passage Monday of a bill aimed at allowing the rule to impose economic sanctions onward the North.

''I don't plane know if I should remark on it,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a freshs conference, referring to a critical elucidation in the Rodong Sinmun.

''North Korea is required to concentrate in succession how to settle pending issues,'' Fukuda, the top management spokesman, said, referring to its nuclear weapons progression in a continuously ascending gradation programs and its past abductions of Japanese.

The North Korean newspaper said Tuesday the hostile relations between the sum of two units countries have reached a stage just prior to actually exchanging fire.

Japan's parliament forward Monday approved an amendment of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade command Law so that the management can unilaterally impose economic sanctions onward the North.

Fukuda also downplayed earlier Tuesday a statement issued by dint of the Democratic People's Republic of the Korea-Japan Friendship Association forward Monday, which called for excluding Japan from the six-nation talks upon the North's nuclear ambitions.

''It will not become an issue because the call was not made through the North Korean government'' Fukuda said.

The statement petition fored the North Korean government ''not to have any bilateral contact with Japan nor allow Japan to participate in the six-way talks'' proper to Japan's ''hostile policy'' toward the North.

The other round of six-way talks, which involve Japan, China, North and toward the south Korea, Russia and the United States, is scheduled to take place in Beijing from Feb 25

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said the talks will not be happy without Japan's participation because they are aimed at discussing the peace and stability of East Asia.

Kawaguchi reiterated Japan's stance that it is not considering immediately imposing economic sanctions onward North Korea.

The amendment for economic sanctions cleared the Diet amid dissatisfaction with what the management says is the uncooperative attitude of North Korea in settling the kidnapping issue, a topic of public make anxious in Japan.

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