North Korean and Japanese diplomats yesterday ended five days of talks on establishing diplomatic relations without any agreements, citing major differences on the North's abduction of Japanese nationals and other issues.
Song Il-ho, the North's chief envoy to the talks, also publicly appealed to Japan to urge the US to lift economic sanctions on his country, saying the North won't return to nuclear disarmament talks until that happens.
The two sides agreed to meet again to "narrow our differences" but set no date, Song said.
The discussions, which began Saturday, were the highest-level contacts between the two sides in three years on possible diplomatic ties.
Song's Japanese counterpart, Koichi Haraguchi, said the two governments understood each other better but "we discovered that there's a big difference of opinion."
Meeting at a Beijing hotel, envoys discussed abductions, the North's nuclear and missile programs and Pyongyang's demand for Japan to pay reparations for its 1910-1945 colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula.
Tokyo says it won't agree to form relations unless the North settles disputes over its nuclear and missile programs and divulges information about its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
Haraguchi said there were "still lingering doubts about what kind of efforts have been put in, and when concrete steps will be taken" to resolve the issues.
China is trying to restart six-nation talks aimed at persuading the North to give up nuclear development. Japan also is taking part in those talks, along with South Korea, the US and Russia.
North Korea pledged last September to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security assurances. But progress has stalled since then, in part because of the North's anger over financial restrictions that Washington imposed over alleged counterfeiting and weapons proliferation.
"We are ready to return to talks under one condition, and that is that the United States lift its sanctions," Song said.
"The United States won't hear this from us. But if Japan tells the United States, if a friend tells a friend, they might listen," he said.
The most contentious dispute, however, remained the abductions, with no breakthroughs reported after two rounds of talks on the issue.
"One achievement of the dialogue is that we were able to make clear our concerns and demands to the North Korean side," Japan's chief Cabinet secretary, Shinzo Abe, said in Tokyo.
"However, as for the abduction issue, the North Korean side unfortunately did not respond to our demands. I find this extremely regrettable," he said.
The North in 2002 admitted abducting 13 Japanese to be used to teach spies language and culture. Five were subsequently allowed to return home and Pyongyang said the other eight were dead -- but Japan is demanding proof.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in