Ministry officials said that diplomats from the two countries had agreed to continue bilateral talks on the issue. Although the two sides did not agree on a specific date for further discussions, a senior ministry official said the next talks will "naturally" be held on the sidelines of the six-party meeting about North Korea's nuclear program, which will take place Feb. 25 in Beijing.

However, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Feb. 14 quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that Pyongyang will "strongly reject" Japan's participation in the second round of six-party talks if Japan plans to take up the abductions issue there.

"If the Japanese side again raises the 'abduction issue' at the next round of the six-way talks, the DPRK will resolutely shut out Japan's participation in the talks, as requested by the army and the people of the DPRK, and this will bring everything to a collapse," the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 21, 2004
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