The bilateral governmental talks between North Korea and Japan concluded in Beijing today without any major results.

 

The talks, which started on February 4, were arranged in a three-track format covering the abduction issue, normalization of diplomatic ties, and the security issue.

 

Vice Director of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Department Kim Chol-ho and Deputy Chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kunio Umeda met on Sunday to air their views and stances on the abduction issue. Both agreed to continue the talks despite existing differences.

 

Koichi Haraguchi, Japanese ambassador in charge of the Japan-North Korea normalization talks and his North Korean counterpart Song Il-ho talked about the normalization of diplomatic ties Monday, but there was no consensus on the subject.

 

Tadamichi Yamamoto, Japanese ambassador in charge of the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, and Jong Thae-yang, deputy chief of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's US Affairs Department held talks mainly covering the nuclear and missile issue Tuesday morning.

 

Then Kim and Umeda picked up the abduction issue again Tuesday afternoon and still made no major progress.

 

The previous round of talks between the two countries was held in Malaysia in 2002.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2006)