Japan and North Korea salvaged their first diplomatic talks in more than a year on Wednesday after negotiations were suspended over discord about Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese citizens. The turbulence contrasted with a meeting in New York on Monday between US officials and a North Korean delegation that an American envoy described as "very good".
The two encounters took place as implementation began of a six-nation deal under which the reclusive communist state would start dismantling its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and diplomatic recognition. "We will meet at the North Korean embassy tomorrow morning at 10 to discuss the abductions issue and normal diplomatic relations," Japanese delegation head Koichi Haraguchi told reporters in Hanoi, which is hosting the March 7 and 8 talks.
Earlier, a Japanese diplomat said a scheduled afternoon meeting failed to take place because the Koreans had "reacted angrily" at the morning session over discussion of the sensitive issue of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s to train as spies in Japanese language and culture.
Japanese and North Korean diplomats met in the morning at the Japanese embassy in the Vietnamese capital. Diplomats from the two countries last met more than a year ago in Beijing but without visible progress.
Haraguchi said Japan had demanded North Korea return all the abductees, shed light on the issue and hand over North Koreans suspected of abducting Japanese citizens. "They said they had done all they could, and therefore it is meaningless to have any more discussions," Haraguchi said in a briefing late on Wednesday at a Hanoi hotel.
A Tokyo-based newspaper published by North Koreans close to Pyongyang said in a report from Hanoi that the talks were suspended because of Japan's "imprudent and hard-line position".
Thursday's agenda calls for talks on resuming diplomatic relations, which Tokyo says is impossible without resolution of the abductee issue. Tokyo wants more information from Pyongyang and the return of any survivors.
North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese, sparking outrage in Japan. Five of those were repatriated and Pyongyang says the other eight are dead. Highlighting the fierce tensions hanging over any Japan-North Korea encounter, Pyongyang chose the day of the Hanoi talks to issue a stinging official attack on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Weighing into a row over Abe's denial that the Japanese Army itself had kidnapped the many thousand Asian women prostituted for its troops during World War Two, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement:
"The prime minister of a country dares challenge the historical facts and the unbiased public opinion of the international community ... far from humbly repenting of the past crimes with a proper view on history. This clearly indicates how vulgar Japan has become in its conscience and morality." Asked by reporters in Tokyo about the Hanoi talks, Abe said: "Lots of things happen when negotiating with North Korea. There's no change in our position to seek progress and resolution of the abduction issue in these negotiations."
For its part, North Korea was expected to press for settlement of issues stemming from Japan's harsh 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. "We believe it is favourable for us to build substantial political, economic and cultural relations by settling the unfortunate past and issues of mutual concern," North Korea's negotiator, Song Il-ho, said in his opening statement.
Under the arms-for-aid deal struck in Beijing on February 13, North Korea sent its chief nuclear envoy to the United States and another delegation to Hanoi for talks on establishing ties.
The Beijing deal has also eased tension on the Korean peninsula that had been stoked by Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests last year. An adviser to South Korea's president, former prime minister Lee Hae-chan, left for Pyongyang on Wednesday to meet the North's nominal number two leader. The two Koreas remain technically at war, over half a century after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an inconclusive truce.
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