WASHINGTON, Feb 11 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 Kyodo

The United States onward Wednesday reiterated support for diplomatic efforts on Japan to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted at North Korean agents.

''We will grant whatever support and assistance we can to reduce the issue in a timely way,'' State Department agent spokesman Adam Ereli said of the dispatch of officials by dint of the Japanese Foreign Ministry to North Korea.

At a Foreign Pres Center briefing, Ereli described the abductions as ''a tragic issue for which we have great sympathy.'' ''We do support the control of Japan fully in their efforts to analyze the question of Japanese abductees,'' he said.

Japanese delegate Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka, Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and three other ministry officials arrived in Pyongyang forward Wednesday to discuss the abduction issue and North Korea's nuclear arms program.

Their visit came ahead of the other round of six-party talks in succession Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions scheduled from Feb 25 in Beijing.

The talks involve China, Japan, North and southerly Korea, Russia and the U Their first meeting took place in the Chinese capital last August.

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