N Korea, Japan hold first direct talks since 2008
CHINA: Japan and North Korea are set to meet Wednesday in their first
face-to-face talks in four years as diplomats see if they can start
laying the groundwork to overcome a troubled history.
Ties between the countries have long been strained amid decades of
mutual distrust, though they periodically try to resume dialogue with
the ultimate -- and so far elusive -- goal of establishing formal
diplomatic relations.
The discussions, expected to last at least a day, come as governments
and analysts seek clues about the emerging foreign policy of North
Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un, who took over after his father Kim Jong-Il
died in December.
The issues that have long bedevilled Japan-North Korea relations,
however, remain largely the same, so it remains unclear how much, if
any, progress can be made in the encounter in Beijing, China's capital
city. Tokyo continues to want further answers regarding the fates of
citizens abducted in the past by North Korean agents, amid suspicions in
Japan that Pyongyang has failed to provide all the information it has.
Pyongyang admitted in 2002 its agents kidnapped Japanese in the 1970s
and 1980s to help train spies by teaching Japanese language and culture,
and allowed five of them and their family members to return to Japan.
It said another eight had died, though many in Japan hold out hope
they remain alive. There are also suspicions that Pyongyang's agents
abducted more Japanese than was admitted.
Japan says North Korea agreed to reopen investigations into the fate
of abducted Japanese when the two sides last met in 2008. AFP
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