Tokyo and Pyongyang continued their talks in Beijing yesterday, discussing ways to resolve the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals.

The issue has prevented Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from normalizing their diplomatic relations.

This is the first high-level bilateral contact in three years for the two countries. The previous round of talks was held in Malaysia in 2002.

The fresh round of talks are scheduled to cover the abduction issue, normalization of diplomatic ties and regional security. Three panels will each take a day for negotiations.

The Japanese head negotiator on the panel tasked with the abduction issue is Kunio Umeda, deputy chief of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. His counterpart from the DPRK is Kim Chol-ho, head of the Foreign Ministry's Japanese Affairs Section.

"There have been big differences regarding how to resolve the abduction issue," Kim told reporters before the start of the session.

In 2002, the DPRK admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens and released five of them, saying the other eight had died. Tokyo, however, still wants evidence of the deaths and wants Pyongyang to fully investigate the cases of other suspected abductees. In return, the DPRK wants to settle historical issues regarding Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Kunio said the kidnappings were the main concern for Japan and demanded the DPRK take sincere and concrete steps to investigate them.

Koichi Haraguchi and Song Il-ho are the ambassadors in charge of bilateral ties for Japan and the DPRK respectively.

Tadamichi Yamamoto, Japanese envoy of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, and Jong Thae-yang, deputy chief of the DPRK Foreign Ministry's US Affairs Department, are scheduled to hold talks tomorrow to tackle the nuclear issue.

(China Daily February 6, 2006)