The Japanese government is to partially lift sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as the DPRK has shown positive stance on resolving the issue of past abduction of Japanese nationals, Japanese official said Friday.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura made the announcement at a press conference after listening to report by Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, who held discussions with DPRK representative on bilateral ties in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday.

According to Machimura, the DPRK has changed its original insistence that the abduction issue has been resolved and acknowledged the necessity to re-investigate the issue for the finding of the victims and their return to Japan.

The DPRK pledged concrete actions to resolve the abduction issue and continued discussion with Japan on ways to look for the victims. It also agreed to cooperate on extraditing the Japanese radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to the DPRK in 1970, Machimura said.

Japan regards the DPRK's latest stance as a "certain degree of progress," and in return, Japan will lift some of the sanctions, including conditionally lifting a ban on DPRK ships entering Japanese ports, the top Japanese government spokesman said.

Japan will also lift limitation on personnel communications between the two countries and will allow the DPRK's chartered flights to enter Japan, Machimura added.

However, Machimura said the latest discussions in Beijing achieved no comprehensive development and laid no ground for Japan's economic and energy assistance to the DPRK under the framework of the six-party talks.

Saiki came back to Tokyo earlier in the day and briefed Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Machimura, and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura in the afternoon about his discussions with Song Il Ho, the DPRK's ambassador for normalization talks with Japan.

Japan imposed unilateral sanctions against the DPRK following the country's test-firing of missiles in July, 2006. In April, the Japanese government extended the sanctions for the third time, citing the DPRK's inaction on resolving the abduction, nuclear and missile issues.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14,2008)