Japan has asked North Korea to re-enter negotiations on the kidnapping issue, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Thursday. In an interview with Korean reporters, the minister said her country sees the repatriation of the children and spouses of the five Japanese nationals who were returned last year as vital for progress in Pyongyang-Tokyo ties.“Thus we have requested resumption of Japan-North Korea negotiations to deal with the abductee issue,¡¯¡¯ said Kawaguchi in the interview, which lasted for half an hour at ministry headquarters in the morning. Japan and North Korea have been at loggerheads over the abductee issue ever since National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il admitted to having kidnapped Japanese nationals in the past during a summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September last year. Pyongyang allowed five abductees to visit home the next month but Tokyo did not return them as originally promised. This had led to a virtual freeze in bilateral relations, including talks on the diplomatic normalization their leaders agreed to pursue during the summit. Full Story
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