Japan, North Korea to hold talks next month in Beijing

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2012-11-27

North Korean soldiers in a troop review in Pyeongyang
in April. (Photo/Xinhua)

Japan and North Korea will hold next round of talks between senior officials on Dec. 5 and 6 in Beijing so as to further discuss issues concerned by both sides, a senior official said Tuesday.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, made the announcement Tuesday and said North Korea will be represented by Song Il Ho, ambassador for talks to normalize relations with Japan, and Japan by Shinsuke Sugiyama, director general of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at Japan's foreign ministry.

Japan's foreign minister, Koichiro Gemba, said in the same occasion that with cautious negotiation, his country intends to achieve outcomes in the talks.

The two countries held a two-day meeting in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator on Nov. 15-16, achieving an agreement to continue talks over the deadlock issue of abductions.

Abductions in the 1970s and 1980s by North Korea have been one of the major obstacles between the two countries to establish diplomatic ties.