ID :
197116
Mon, 07/25/2011 - 18:21
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/197116
The shortlink copeid
Japan's ex-abduction minister met senior N. Korean official
TOKYO (Kyodo) - Japan's former state minister in charge of issues related to Pyongyang's past abduction of Japanese nationals secretly met with North Korea's ambassador for normalization talks with Japan last week in China, sources close to bilateral ties said Monday, in a sign that the two countries are seeking a resumption of long-stalled bilateral negotiations.
Hiroshi Nakai met several times with Song Il Ho at a hotel in Changchun on Thursday and Friday to apparently discuss conditions for the resumption of bilateral talks on matters including how to deal with the abduction issue, the sources said.
But Nakai denied having met with Song when he was asked by reporters on Monday to confirm the meetings had taken place.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a news conference that the government was not aware of any such meeting, while State Foreign Secretary Yutaka Banno said the Foreign Ministry was ''not involved at all.''
The meeting of Nakai and Song, the sources said, came at a time when North Korea plans to resume bilateral talks with the United States later this week in New York for the first time since November 2009. The North Korean chief delegate to the six-nation talks on the country's nuclear program also met bilaterally with his South Korean counterpart last week in Indonesia.
Japan and North Korea held their last round of talks in Shenyang, northeastern China, in August 2008.
Nakai, now chief of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, was accompanied on his visit to China by an official from the Headquarters for the Abduction Issue under the Cabinet Office, according to the sources.
The sources said Nakai and Song are believed to have discussed a bilateral agreement reached in August 2008 under which Pyongyang would establish a commission to reinvestigate the cases of abducted Japanese nationals who North Korea claims have already died or never entered the country. North Korea was to try to complete the probe by the fall of that year.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, who returned from the ASEAN Regional Forum, said during a parliamentary session in Tokyo, ''It is important to conduct an all-out reinvestigation and I will urge (North Korea) to take concrete action.''
Matsumoto said that during the ARF talks he clearly stated Japan's stance that the abduction issue is yet to be settled, in response to North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun's claim that it has already been resolved.
Hiroshi Nakai met several times with Song Il Ho at a hotel in Changchun on Thursday and Friday to apparently discuss conditions for the resumption of bilateral talks on matters including how to deal with the abduction issue, the sources said.
But Nakai denied having met with Song when he was asked by reporters on Monday to confirm the meetings had taken place.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a news conference that the government was not aware of any such meeting, while State Foreign Secretary Yutaka Banno said the Foreign Ministry was ''not involved at all.''
The meeting of Nakai and Song, the sources said, came at a time when North Korea plans to resume bilateral talks with the United States later this week in New York for the first time since November 2009. The North Korean chief delegate to the six-nation talks on the country's nuclear program also met bilaterally with his South Korean counterpart last week in Indonesia.
Japan and North Korea held their last round of talks in Shenyang, northeastern China, in August 2008.
Nakai, now chief of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, was accompanied on his visit to China by an official from the Headquarters for the Abduction Issue under the Cabinet Office, according to the sources.
The sources said Nakai and Song are believed to have discussed a bilateral agreement reached in August 2008 under which Pyongyang would establish a commission to reinvestigate the cases of abducted Japanese nationals who North Korea claims have already died or never entered the country. North Korea was to try to complete the probe by the fall of that year.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, who returned from the ASEAN Regional Forum, said during a parliamentary session in Tokyo, ''It is important to conduct an all-out reinvestigation and I will urge (North Korea) to take concrete action.''
Matsumoto said that during the ARF talks he clearly stated Japan's stance that the abduction issue is yet to be settled, in response to North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun's claim that it has already been resolved.
