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Japan Says Abducted Japanese Must Be on Korea Talks Agenda
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=E22D8A:3919ACA

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Japan late Monday
ahead of talks Tuesday with top Japanese officials







U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (File photo)U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Japan late Monday ahead of talks
Tuesday with top Japanese officials. The major topic will be North
Korea's decision to return to six-nation nuclear talks.

Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations. And Tokyo has
repeatedly said this is not going to change until Pyongyang comes
clean about the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean
agents. Most of the Japanese civilians were kidnapped in Japan during
the Cold War era and were forced to train North Korean spies in
Japanese language and culture.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura says Japan will use the
new six-party talks to raise issues besides North Korea's nuclear
weapons development.

Mr. Machimura says the resumption of the talks will be the first step
in dealing with a variety of issues, including North Korea's missile
development and the missing Japanese.

North Korea has said that the eight Japanese that have not already
been repatriated are dead. Japan has termed as "unbelievable"
Pyongyang's various explanations of their fates - such as dying in
automobile accidents or succumbing to gas heater fumes. Five other
Japanese were allowed to return to Japan after Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi flew to Pyongyang in 2002 to meet North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il.

A subsequent one-day visit by Mr. Koizumi last year failed to make
further progress.

Since then the level of tension between Tokyo and Pyongyang has
increased, as was evident by the comment North Korea made about its
willingness to return to the six-way talks in Beijing before the end
of this month.

Quoting a foreign ministry spokesman, a North Korean state television
announcer says all of the neighboring countries to the Korean
peninsula made efforts for the resumption of the talks - except Japan,
which did nothing.

That comment was interpreted here as meaning North Korea will try to
isolate Japan at the talks to avoid discussion of the abduction issue.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda says whether or not
North Korea likes it, Tokyo has great hopes of discussing the fate of
the Japanese at the talks.



And he adds that Japan plans to re-emphasize the importance of the
abduction issue when Ms. Rice meets Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Machimura on
Tuesday.