Japan Expresses 'serious Concern' About N Korean Missiles In Beijing Talks

BEIJING (AFP) - Japanese negotiators told North Korea they had "serious concern" about its missile program in talks that extended for a second day in Beijing, a Japanese diplomat said.
The discussions, focusing on Pyongyang's missile and nuclear program and its past abductions of Japanese citizens, took place Sunday behind the walls of North Korea's secretive embassy compound in the Chinese capital.
"The Japanese side expressed serious concern about the missile issue," said the Japanese diplomat, referring to Saturday's negotiations.
The Japanese delegates, headed by Akitaka Saiki, the foreign ministry's deputy chief for Asian affairs, would see to it that the missile and nuclear issue was on Sunday's agenda as well, he said.
The talks were carried out against the backdrop of a Japanese press report that increased activity had been observed at about 10 missile bases in North Korea that could be seen as preparation for a missile launch.
But the presence of missiles themselves and their launch pads have not been confirmed, the major daily Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting Japanese and US government sources.
Song Il-Ho, the head of the North Korean delegation in this weekend's talks, said earlier he did not know anything about Pyongyang's reported plan to conduct a new missile test.
"I am not aware of it. There are many false reports in Japan," Song, deputy director of the North Korean foreign ministry's Asian Affairs department, said when arriving Saturday in Beijing, according to Kyodo News.
One agenda item that the Japanese negotiators were keen to push again on Sunday was North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens during the Cold War and their fate in the isolated country, according to the Japanese diplomat.
"The North Korean side said it is still conducting its investigation into its abduction issue," he said of Saturday's talks. "They made an oral report about the investigations but it's not the final report."
He said he did not know if any new details had emerged from the account provided by the North Korean side.
During the talks this weekend, North Korea had been expected to disclose information about 10 missing Japanese nationals abducted in the 1970s and 1980s.
The kidnapping issue has been the biggest obstacle to the normalization of relations between the two countries.
The Japanese diplomat said it was unlikely that the two teams of negotiators would meet again for a third day of talks on Monday.
He said it was too early to speculate if the two countries would arrange a new round of meetings in the near future to seek a solution to the festering abduction issue.
While Japan and North Korea were talking, hopes were fading rapidly that six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program were going to happen before the end of the month as originally planned.
The six nations -- China, Japan, the two Koreas, the United States and Russia -- had agreed to meet again by the end of September, but North Korea has recently signaled extreme reluctance to participate.
"Of course, Japan would like North Korea to return to the six-party talks," the diplomat said. "Who doesn't want them to come back to the talks?"