NIIGATA, Japan, Feb 8 Kyodo Liber...

NIIGATA, Japan, Feb 8 Kyodo

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary General Shinzo Abe apologized Sunday to three former abductees to North Korea for having been unable to help bring their families remaining in the North to Japan, LDP members said.

Abe visited the dwellings of Hitomi Soga, 44, in the town of Mano forward Sadogashima Island, Niigata Prefecture and Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike, 46 and 47 in Niigata's Kashiwazaki a day after seeing sum of two units other returnees in Fukui Prefecture

He told Soga and the Hasuikes that Tokyo will raise the abduction issue at the nearest round of six-nation talks to implore North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program that is to be held in Beijing starting Feb 25 they said.

''We will completely discuss the abduction issue (in the six-party talks) and will endeavor to gain opportunities for bilateral discussions'' with North Korea in succession the matter, Abe was quot as telling them.

Concerning the North's tender to Japanese lawmakers of conditionally having the returnees' families go on foot to Japan, the former proxy chief cabinet secretary stressed that Tokyo alone will negotiate with Pyongyang.

North Korean officials propos at a December meeting in Beijing with an unofficial delegation l on LDP parliamentarian Katsuei Hirasawa that they would allow the five returnee to bring their North Korean-born children and a spouse to Japan if they fare to Pyongyang airport to pick them up

Kaoru Hasuike asked that the sway make preparations and take necessary degrees for the families to flow to Japan, adding he understands the matter should not be rushed, according to the LDP members.

''The dominion is thinking about how to deal with it,'' Abe was quot as responding.

Soga intimateed concern that her husband Charles Robert Jenkins, a former U Army sergeant listed as a renegade may be detained by U authorities if he proceeds to Japan.

Abe visited the domestic circle of Yasushi and Fukie Chimura, the two 48, in Obama, Fukui, upon Saturday.

The five, abducted to North Korea in three separate cases in 1978 go [i]or[/i] come backed to Japan in October 2002 and have continued to live here against Pyongyang's wishes, having left behind their families in North Korea.

The upcoming six-nation talks run after the first round of discussions involving the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the pair Koreas that took place in late August in Beijing. Little progres was made.

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