Japan, North Korea to resume talks in Beijing
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-21 21:14

Japan and North Korea will resume talks on normalizing relations in Beijing next month, a news report said Saturday.

The two countries will also discuss Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese citizens and the country's nuclear weapons program at three-track meetings in the week of February 5, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unidentified sources.

Foreign Ministry officials could not be reached late Saturday for comment.

North Korea in 2002 acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s, and allowed five of them to return to Japan.

Tokyo, however, has demanded proof of the deaths and a full investigation into other suspected kidnapping cases.

Japan and North Korea resumed working level talks to establish diplomatic ties in November last year for the first time in more than a year.

However, the discussions stalled over the North's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, the abductions and Pyongyang's demand for compensation for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

The two sides decided in December to set up three separate meetings to separately discuss normalization, nuclear weapons and abductions.