"There was no progress (in the talks) because we found no concrete details in the report. Frankly speaking, it was just inadequate," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said in Tokyo following the end of the two-day talks in Beijing.

The talks ended with only a verbal interim report from North Korean officials on the fate of 10 Japanese nationals kidnapped along with others by the North in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in language and culture.

Tokyo hoped to receive fresh information about the missing 10 as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il promised to reinvestigate the cases during a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang in May.

But three months after Kim's promise, Pyongyang gave no new information on the investigation. Japan asked North Korea to hold another round of talks in September.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 21, 2004
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